Calling for Submissions: Daters, Swipers, and Modern Romancers

These days, with just a single swipe, you can suddenly gain entry into some of the most intimate details in one’s life. People will give you strange looks if you spend too much time inspecting what they put into their grocery cart at the checkout line, but they are absolutely comfortable sharing three bathroom selfies and a fishy face photo alongside a Kanye West quote with the entire virtual dating world on Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, ChristianMingleSingles, or whatever online dating venue flavor is of choice.

When I moved to San Francisco four years ago, I worked to shake the stigma I assigned to online dating and came to meet some of the most interesting and yet also bizarre human beings. An entire world was at my fingertips, and with one single swipe, I became privy to the life of a seemingly random stranger that I most likely would never have encountered outside the digital world.

Now, I would love to say that what comes next is a ‘happily ever after’ ending like in every good Disney movie, but spoiler alert: it doesn’t. I don’t have a massive ring weighing down my hand to strategically reflect into the eyes of each passerby, nor do I have a Mr. Right to accompany me to every social gathering where I have been offered a plus one.

What I can say though is this: I wouldn’t trade the world for the past 4 years of my life. I have gotten to laugh, cry, and encounter some truly weird shit as I navigated the modern dating world. These lessons, these people, and these insights have driven me to where I am. And well, I am kinda stoked and happy about that.

Time and time again though, I find myself sharing tales around my wide array of encounters, and in doing so I have noticed that so many of my friends have their own wacky, funny, tender (see what I did there…ya?) stories to share. Hearing stories from others continues to normalize my experiences…maybe I am not the only one out there that made the rookie mistake of accepting a dinner invitation for a first date with a guy that completely catfished me….or maybe I am not alone in finding out that the self professed ‘health forward’ guy you were seeing actually smokes a pack of cigarettes a day and is more than willing to get you up in the middle of the night to find a new pack when he ran out. Maybe, right?

This is why I am calling for submissions for a new podcast, SwipeStories. I know that there are some of you out there that have stories, tales, experiences that you want to share. (I’m really counting on it.) Each week I will read an anonymous submitted story on my podcast.

So type, swipe, and click away your stories to: TheSwipeStories@Gmail.com