I went on a Tinder date every day of the week before Valentine’s Day

Instead of looking for my perfect bottle of Jack (my go to boyfriend), this year I decided to experiment with the online realm of dating apps. For someone who never dates to begin with, this was quite the experience.

The week before Valentine’s Day I decided I wanted to see what the whole frenzy around the infamous “Tinder” was. I mean honestly, could it be THAT bad? (Yes, yes it can.) My history with Tinder had been pretty on and off until this past week, I mean, I would always tell myself I wouldn’t re-download it and yet there it was blowing up in my phone for when I was bored and wanted to troll random, innocent strangers on the internet. The entire time I’ve had Tinder in the past, I had never met up with anyone (with the exception of one kid, but let’s just pretend it never happened) so I decided it was time to go on these dates and see what these guys had on their minds the week before Valentine’s Day.

My adventure began as I downloaded Tinder mid-Sunday afternoon,  February 7th approximately at 11:45am as I boarded my bus back to Philly.

My entire bus ride was spent in swiping and taking periodic naps. By the time I reached Philly, I had perfected my profile and obtained enough swipes to begin collecting the dates for my Monday through Friday agenda. To get the guys to ask me out in the short amount of time I had, I made my Tinder bio “We’re going on a date if you can give a mean massage, sorry I don’t care what you have to say.”- surprisingly enough, they were all eager to take me out on the dates.

There was only one rule I set for myself during this project and it was, if they asked why I was on Tinder, I would be honest and tell them about the article. Luckily, only two of my five dates asked me that so most of the experiences were completely genuine. By about midnight Sunday, I had lined up four dates.

Let the games begin.

Monday: Date #1

This guy was quite the character. At first he told me I had won a glass of wine and I could come pick it up wherever and whenever at my earliest convenience, obviously, I told him Monday and that’s how I got my first date.

However, I changed my mind and told him wine wouldn’t do it – he then offered a cup of coffee… for a Monday night. I went with the flow got ready and met up with him at a cafe he suggested at 8:30pm in Center City.

Unfortunately, when I got there (he was late) the cafe was closed so I suspected he lived close by and would suggest going to his place. To my surprise, when he got there he suggested another cafe a couple blocks down so I was like “Okay! This is going great! He isn’t creepy and we’re not going to his place!”.

During the date he told me about how he was a union organizer and seemed like a total history buff – overall 8/10 rating for this date…until about 10pm. Around 10 pm Date #1 says to me, “Looks like we better get going, it’s almost 10, they’ll kick us out! You sure you don’t want to go back to my place?” and to that, I reply,”Oh no, I’m good,thanks! I’ll call my uber right now.” As step out, it’s snowing outside, I’m freezing, he offers waiting for the uber at his place, so I take up the offer since I made my lack of intentions clear. Unfortunately, this is where the nightmare began.

As soon as I get into his place, I have my phone in my hand with the uber already requested, and without warning I was cornered and Date #1 just starts trying to kiss me, now very alert of the situation, I push him away, politely decline and create a distant between us. He says, “I understand, sorry about that. It’s fine, we can go upstairs and wait in my apartment then.” I kept my jacket on and continuously kept talking as my defense so he would have no other chances to make moves but this didn’t stop Date #1, he was determined – by the end of the next 15 minutes I had to push him away FIVE times, and start walking back downstairs because I feel violated and uncomfortable.

Post date feelings: For my Date #1 to be my first ever Tinder experience, frankly, I was a little scarred, I wasn’t looking forward to the rest of the dates for the week but I had to remind myself they were all different people. As for Date #1 after Monday night he messaged me on Tinder saying, “Let’s meet after I come back from Florida in a couple of weeks”. No thanks!

Tuesday: Date #2

Poor Date #2, didn’t have quite the fair chance since I was still scarred from Date #1.

He  met up with me after my night class by the Bell Tower and asked if I wanted “dinner or something”. Since, I was exhausted I suggested just sitting in the tables at SERC and talking. Date #2 agreed to it, and was overall a really nice guy. Frankly, for the lack of talking I was doing, he was great at keep the conversation going.

Surprisingly enough, he brought up Valentine’s Day and asked if I had any plans, I just shrugged it off and he told me about how he wanted to do something and we laughed when he admitted he was on Tinder trying to find a potential date for Valentine’s as well. We talked for about 40 minutes and called it a night. Overall I’d say a 9/10 date, pretty laid back, had a good time, and no aggressive behavior was involved.

Post date feelings: I definitely wish I got to know Date #2 a little better and maybe gave him more time with me but at the end, he was pretty cool. Sadly, he never hit me up again after the date. Guess I wasn’t destined to be his Valentine!

Wednesday: Date #3

This whole dating scene was getting a little overwhelming just within the first two days but I kept my word and continued to venture on! Date #3 was super excited to meet me, it was quite flattering honestly. He knew it was for the article because he asked me why I was on Tinder before we met and I came clean. Nonetheless, his excitement was genuine.

We decided to meet at Fox School of Business, after his class and two hours before mine. I went there and to my surprise I saw him just sitting on a couch talking to a girl. Not gonna lie, that was pretty awkward for me so, I walked away to the cafe and messaged him saying I was waiting by the cafe so he came up and introduced himself, pretty nervously, I’d say. After all, he did “superlike” on Tinder so that goes to say for something.

Date #3 was really nice, very enthusiastic and quite innocent, half way through the date he even randomly asked me to define a “fuckboy”. Since he knew I was on Tinder for the article, he did ask me how the other dates were and was pretty respectable about the whole thing. Towards, the end of the date, he ALSO asked me what my Valentine’s Day plans were and I told him I didn’t really have any. He went on to tell me about how he “likes Valentine’s Day but it gets sickening sometimes when you’re single, because you know, [you] kinda wish you had that too with someone”. Then to really make himself aware as the sensitive one in my eyes, he literally sneezed SEVEN times in a row at the end of the date and I said, “Maybe there’s just something in the air!” referring to dust, and I shit you not folks, he replied, “Maybe it’s love.”

That was a solid wrap on Date #3 and I had to go to class so I told him it was nice meeting him and left the crime scene of love in the air.

Post Date Feelings: I thought Date #3 went pretty and wasn’t opposed to hanging out with him again as just a friend sometime, until I left the date and immediately received follow-up messages from him on Tinder which included the terrifying “winky face”, and though I told him about my article his messages seemed to indicate he didn’t really understand the premise. I’d definitely have to say he was the nicest date of the week though. He even followed up again and updated me on his sneezing situation!

Thursday: Date #4

This guy PLAYED me. I told him I would meet up with him and I was a little late. After I got dressed up and everything, he messaged me saying, “I think we both always knew it wasn’t going to happen anyway.” SIR WHAT!? I had got dressed up and everything! It was incredibly rude, I was definitely counting down the fact I only had one date left for the week. Easily a 0/10 for this date.

Post Date Feelings:  Well, he for sure isn’t getting himself any kind of Valentine Date!

Friday: Date #5

This guy was by far the most put together date. He worked in consulting so he wanted to take me to dinner or a movie. He was really cool to talk to on Tinder and had a weird obsession with Jim from the Office but I went with it.

He asked me if I wanted to go out with his friends or if I was looking for a “more one to one dealio”, which definitely was a little frightening since my Date #1 experience but I told him dinner would be fine. We ended up going to a place in South Philly, he was really polite and fun to talk to. He did bring up Jim a number of times as we ate as well, and he told me “for Valentine’s [he] just wanted to find his Pam”, half jokingly but also half seriously.

Post Date Feelings: I definitely had a very mature and fun experience with Date #5 and it was a great way to end my Tinder adventures for the week. He messaged me later saying we should definitely do something next weekend but I’m probably going to go off the charts from Tinder for a while.

Overall Experience

From this week’s adventure of dates, I learned the boys on Tinder are pretty aware of Singles Awareness Day around the corner and they’re all just trying to find a good time. Some are looking for the perfect hook-ups, while some seem to be unknowingly allergic to the love in the air, and lastly, there are a bunch of Jims looking for their Pams. Tinder,isn’t just a hook-up app, some of the guys are fun to meet or some decide you aren’t good enough to meet up with them. But all is well, if you decide to spend Valentine’s Day single anyway!