I went to the UCLove speed-dating night and it was as awkward as you would expect

It's almost Christmas, which seems to mean that everyone I know has coupled up to have someone to cuddle with next to the fire and make out with under the mistletoe.

Unfortunately, I seemed to miss that memo, and having failed to find my soul mate (or at least temporary place holder) during Autumn, currently I'm facing the possibility of being the single weirdo at every Christmas party I go to.

After discovering that my cat was not a suitable plus-one at family Christmas party (their loss – he's a riot!) I decided to go to the UCLove speed-dating night in hopes of meeting my soul mate/ place holder.

Organised by UCLove and the UCL Guild in response to the number of posts on UCLove about people being lonely, the speed-dating night was held at Phineas on Monday.

I arrived at the venue and after a few minutes of awkward hovering the speed dating began and we were all instructed to go find someone to ask the ice-breaker questions.

Perhaps unsurprisingly my first conversation was disastrous. We somehow ended up talking about the difficulties of cooking asparagus for a good five minutes. This might have been an interesting conversation… if I'd ever actually cooked asparagus before in my life.

After the five minutes were up the organisers ordered us to go find a new person to talk to and this is were the evening slightly fell apart. Apparently everyone's first conversations had been awkward and a number of people swiftly left – particularly the girls in the room.

It became apparent that I was now only one of about five girls who was left. The vibe of the room was accurately described by one guy as a "sausage fest."

Now on one hand, this was a positive – I have never felt so popular or desirable – but on the other hand, standing in a weird huddle with eight guys you have never met before is just plain awkward.

After 10 minutes of stilted conversation I decided to exit the weird huddle to ask the UCL Guild about what they had hoped to achieve with the event.

George Harris, a member of UCL Guild, explained that they had been motivated to organised the event because they wanted to improve UCL students mental health and it was clear that a large number of students were very lonely.

"We really wanted to create an event which allowed people to be social outside of academics and clubs. We wanted students to have the opportunity to open up to different people they wouldn't normally meet."

The event was also organised to help raise money for the charity Olly's Future, a charity named after a UCL student who committed suicide last year, and which aims to raise awareness of suicide in young people.

George acknowledged that they had learned from the evening that "ratios can be a problem" but that they wouldn't be deterred from holding more events – although maybe not speed-dating again.

He explained that "If tonight only just got one person out of their room and meeting a new person it has been a success."

And as I was leaving to go home to my cat, it looked like George's wish might have come true. I spotted two people from the speed-dating in the corner of the room looking cosy. Maybe – just maybe – there still is some hope that you can find your soul mate at Phineas.