My Tinder Relationship

How Tinder brought me my first real relationship

When I first starting using Tinder I never really took it seriously let alone thinking I’d end up with a serious relationship yet here I am writing about my first real relationship and how Tinder is the result of it.

My love life isn’t something anyone would brag about. I can count with one hand how many girls I’ve been with, this is the result of me being somewhat shy and lacking of confidence in high school and parts of college. Whenever girls found out about my dating history (or rather the lack there of) the same reaction would always take place “how have you never had a girlfriend?”. I never really thought about why, I just figured I wasn’t anything too special. Then I started using Tinder and everything kind of changed.

Day 1

My first day of using Tinder took place at night, I was laying in bed going through the app store when Tinder showed up on iOS app store Top Charts. I figured why not and downloaded the app, once I connected my Facebook, chose my photos, and wrote out a short bio I was ready to go.

As soon as I finished setting up my profile I was given a short tutorial on how Tinder works. If you like someone, you swipe right and if you have the opposite feeling you swipe left. What I found kind of neat about Tinder was how they displayed their stats. The four things I would first notice is there picture, then their name, their shared interests, and our mutual friends.

After a few swipes to the left and right I figured out immediately that shared interests matter to me, I suddenly created a system for myself. Here’s an example: let’s say I find a girl attractive but we only share a few things in common (1-4) that would be a no-go. For me I realized (especially after high school) that relationships aren’t built on great sex and little shared interest, for me I wanted to find someone that I could consider both my best friend and my girlfriend. Because of this mindset I left myself very particular on the direction of my swipes.

After ten to fifteen minutes of swiping (and no matches) I called it a night and went to bed. As I dowsed off I didn’t think much of the app especially with the fact I didn’t receive any matches. Then again I didn’t understand the system at the time. The only way you can get matched on Tinder is by both parties swiping to right. If you find someone you’d love to talk to but the feeling isn’t mutual, you’re out of luck.

Day 2

I woke up the next day to check my phone (like usual) and I was surprised to see I was inundated with Tinder matches. I planned on checking out who thought I was a match after I got ready for class so I put my phone down and went to go shower. After I got back I had three new matches, this caused my curiosity to peak and I forced myself to investigate.

Twenty-one matches in total (yes, I counted). I started conversations with almost every single one and it was pleasant to actually have a conversation with someone (not all at once though). Once the flood of messages calmed and I was down to messaging a total of five people it got interesting. The whole idea behind Tinder was to find a potential relationship and once I reminded myself of that fact my brain’s process of overthinking had begun.

“What if she wants to date me?” or “since she swiped right, does that mean she thinks I’m cute?” My mind got a bit stupid I admit, I didn’t take into account the fact that some of these users were just here for a simple conversation. This is usually not the case but I digress.

Fast Forward

Moving along to late February when I ended up with match with a curly haired girl with an awesome looking pair of Ray-Ban’s on her face. We both liked baseball, TV shows like Saturday Night Live, Archer, Psych and others. We also had a fondness for The Beatles and Zooey Deschanel.

She initiated the conversation, we talked about what we were doing at the time (studying for exams and such) and the BBC show Sherlock (we talked a lot about Sherlock). It had begun clear after a few days of chatting that we got along like two peas in a pod which brought on the question “when are we gonna meet?”.

The funny thing about meeting someone on Tinder is the small possibility that your match could be an axe murderer. I mean what’s to say that the girl I was going to see wasn’t actually a girl but a deranged old man in his 50's that had a passion for lotion on the skin and axe murdering (I know the lotion is unrelated but you get the idea).

So after I made sure she wasn’t an axe murderer (by asking if she was or not) we finally made plans to meet. We had plans for me to meet her at her dorm where we would spend the day watching Sherlock and eating pizza. I was somewhat nervous but at the same time excited.

Arrival

When I arrived at the dorms, I called her and she said she was coming down. As I waited for her to show thoughts were racing through my head and I was somewhat anxious. Soon enough I saw her and I was able to confirm that she wasn’t a deranged old man in his 50's that had a passion for lotion on the skin and axe murdering (yet). She led me upstairs and led me to the couch where she had her laptop hooked up to the TV so we could commence our Sherlock marathon.

I’ll give you a brief summary of the date: we watched Sherlock, played Mario Kart (which she kicked my ass), and had delicious deep dish pizza. It was a fun day filled with an awesome person. Three weeks later that girl became my girlfriend (my first actually) and so far it’s been nothing but wonderful.

I‘ve often thought about what would’ve happen if either of us swiped left instead of right but I dismiss it and move on with life. I gotta thank the team at Tinder because without them making this app I wouldn’t of found someone so amazing to share my life with. That said, I’d recommend Tinder for obvious reason. Don’t take it too seriously, I didn’t and look where I ended up (that sounds bad, it’s a good thing!).

Thanks for reading. If you’re a college student interested in being texted anytime you class is cancelled, check out my startup ClassStatus.