“My date made for an interesting article”: I attended Glasgow Goes Dating

Like many a single person, Valentine’s Day 2023 was tinged with sadness: seeing all those happy couples, knowing that I was not one of them. However, rather than continuously dwell in my sadness, I decided to do something about it – I was going to attend Glasgow Goes Dating the following day. Perhaps finally I would meet someone. Plus, more importantly, tickets for this event were going to an incredibly important cause. All money raised was going to Glasgow Marrow, the student branch of Anthony Nolan, which you can find out more about here.

I was pleasantly surprised at how fancy the event was. The decor certainly exceeded expectations. The candles, the fairy-lights and the jazz band courtesy of Glasgow University Jazz Society, all added to a very romantic atmosphere. I particularly enjoyed the jazz version of Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, one of my favourite melodies.

The event felt very fancy

We were also given prompts for our dates, to help guide our conversations. We each had a handful of lollipop sticks. Each lollipop had a number which corresponded to a question on a sheet. The questions ranged from being rather innocent questions along the likes of “what is your favourite movie?”to deeper questions such as “do you believe in fate?”. Then there were the saucy questions which had many a person red-faced at their audacity.

Date #1: This was with Maths student Sam from London. He had decided to join the event last-minute, dragging his friend along with him. When asked about his dream date he said he wanted to go somewhere where he could “go dancing.”

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To the soulmate question, he answered that he believed we have “multiple soulmates, a few dotted around the world and hopefully you meet one.”

When asked what he liked most about his personality, he said he liked the fact that he was a “nice person, who didn’t leave people out”.

The final question of our date was one from the saucy pile. “What’s the first thing you would do if you woke up the other gender?” He gave me a response, an interesting one at that, however he specifically asked for his answer not to be shared with our readers.

All in all, I think the date with Sam went very well, perhaps the most successful date of the night. He seemed a kind person and conversation flowed freely.

Glasgow University Jazz Society in action

Date #2: This Mechanical Engineering student wanted to remain anonymous. He apologised profusely at the beginning for his messy attire, explaining that his decision to attend the event was “spur of the moment”.

The first question I asked him was “would you sell feet pics?” Straight away, the student told me that he “absolutely” would. I, meanwhile, attested that I would not.

I then asked him about the most romantic moment of his life, to which he replied “attending this jazz event”.

When later asked if he believed in love at first sight he told me he didn’t believe in such a thing.

I next asked him about the happiest day of his life. He said: “Playing in a band, it was the most fun I ever had, playing for a crowd. It seemed the happiest day I’ve had for a long time. This was some time in January.”

Then, I asked him what “his type was.”

And that was when the date went downhill.

He explained to me, very matter-of-factly, that he liked “average girls” who were “shy” and “didn’t stand out”.

I was absolutely disgusted. The date had been going reasonably well up until that point. I had liked him at first. But now that statement had ruined everything.

He went on to explain in more detail what he meant. From what I can gather, he wanted a girl who didn’t speak up or have an opinion, wasn’t overly pretty, didn’t stand out in terms of achievements or anything. Also someone who dressed conventionally and didn’t draw attention to herself with what she wore… All to make this insecure guy feel better about himself. Ugghh.

We’re not in the 1950s… Us girls need not be in relationships where the guy doesn’t want us to have a voice! And us girls can wear whatever the hell we like!

I vented my frustrations to a few girls after this date and we all agreed that his response was awful and we would never get involved with such a guy. I felt really bad for the girl after me who was due to go on a date with him…

All in all, this was the worst date of the evening. But I guess there can be positives to every bad situation – he sure did make for an interesting article.

Some of the saucy questions…

Date #3: My final date of the evening was with Callum. He was actually part of the Glasgow Marrow committee. He explained to me that he was the only single one on the committee, therefore the only one who could take part in the event.

He was very passionate about the charity. He said: “I joined the charity because my Dad has always been involved with it so when I came to uni I decided to get involved with it.”

The first question I asked him was the following: “Would you rather be in jail for a year or lose a year of your life?”

He told me he’d rather be in jail for a year, to which I agreed with him.

I next asked him whether he believed in fate.

“I think I do,” he told me. “Everything that happens, you can take something from it.”

The feet question came up again. He said, “I think I would sell feet pics, I know someone who got paid to meet a man in Kelvingrove Park to show her feet.”

Overall, Callum seemed like a nice enough person. Not really my type though and if I’m being honest, our date was unmemorable. A few days later and I can barely remember what we discussed. Though that might be because he was completely overshadowed by the awful date beforehand…

Lia and Michael from Glasgow Marrow

After my three dates, I spoke to some committee members. Lia, the President and Michael, the Vice President of Fundraising, were there to tell me more about the charity.

“Glasgow Marrow is the student branch of Anthony Nolan. What they do is save lives of people with blood cancer.”

“Our society aims to raise awareness and to get people to sign up for the stem cell register.”

“It costs the charity £40pp to sign up, we fundraise to cover the cost.”

They made it clear that whilst it costs the charity money to sign up, it is completely free for the individuals who wish to be involved.

The money the charity fundraises also goes towards “groundbreaking scientific research, all working to help people with blood cancer.”

“We do donor recruitment events at busy places on campus. We recruit 16-30 year olds as healthy, young people improve the odds of the transplant working.”

They explained that Glasgow Goes Dating has a history going back several years. Their last in-person event was in 2019, however, as lockdown forced the last few versions to be held online on Zoom.

Of course, if you missed this event there are still other ways you can get involved in the events Glasgow Marrow run.

There is the naked calender which involves many sports teams on campus. There is also their biggest event of the year, Drag Bingo, an event involving two local drag queens.

Make sure to check out their Linktree here. They are also worth following on Instagram as @glasgowmarrow.

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