Graphics by Carrie Clowers ’18
BY ELEANOR HARRIS ’20
Tinder? Tired. Bumble? Boring. MoRomance? Magical.
This week, we matched Hannah*, a sophomore, who described herself as “spunky, fun-loving and artistic,” with Rose*, a “silly but thoughtful” junior. On paper, they seemed like a perfect match. Both told us that they like dance, music and similarly wholesome activities. Rose called her romantic history “limited,” while Hannah referred to her own as some “friendly flirting.”
We sent Hannah and Rose to Thirsty Mind, hoping they’d click over coffee. We told them both to wear red to make it easier to spot their perfect match in a crowd. Here’s how it went:
Hannah: I feel like most people meet people through Tinder nowadays, which isn’t really my scene. [MoRomance] seemed like a fun thing to try. I went into it being like, it’ll be whatever it’ll be.
Rose: I was curious to see who I would be matched with, and whether it would be successful or not. I’m not necessarily looking for a relationship, but I just thought this would be fun to try.
Hannah: I got there a little early. I was waiting around, playing games on my phone, trying to spot people in red shirts. She walked by and she was wearing a red shirt and a smile, but we sat separately for a couple of minutes.
Rose: I awkwardly approached and was like, “Are you here for the MoRomance thing?”
Hannah: She was pretty cute. She was not who I was expecting to see there. I was at the trivia night a couple weeks ago and her team sat next to mine. We had to pass answers back and forth. [In my head] I was like, “I know who you are, and I was not expecting to go on a date with you.”
Rose: She was quiet, but not in a bad way. I got us a table, and we stood in line for drinks. We talked a little.
Hannah: We waited for our drinks and started talking. School, extracurriculars, interests. We were going over the survey, trying to remember what our responses were.
Rose: I was asking her what kinds of things she put on the application, because I was really curious about that. Then we talked about her major, our classes, books, a TV show we both really like and high school a little bit.
Hannah: She seemed like a really fun person. I’m not normally one to get to know people who are older than me, and she’s a grade above me, so it was nice to get to know someone in a different grade.
Rose: We had some surface-level things in common, but we had different energies, if that’s not too hippy-dippy to say. We did have a TV show in common.
Hannah: We’re into similar music, and we talked about Dr. Who for a while. Classes, majors, what we want to do with our lives. I think we’re both a little unsure of what’s going to happen after college. It wasn’t like we had nothing in common, but it wasn’t like we had a ton in common either.
Rose: I don’t think there were any awkward moments, because I’m so petrified of awkward moments that I intentionally tried very hard to avoid them. There were some fun moments when the conversation was flowing really well. I also felt really successful whenever I made her laugh!
Hannah: She said toward the end, “I’m going to have to leave in a few minutes to catch the bus.” We walked back through campus together. I waved. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do, but I waved.
Rose: I had to catch the PVTA, so there was no awkward “should we depart now” thing. I just said “it was really nice to meet you” and we parted ways.
Hannah: It was kind of just getting coffee, getting to know each other. It didn’t seem like a romantic date-y kind of thing. But it was nice. I sent her a friend request on Facebook, but that was about it.
Rose: She’s a really nice person, but not a good match for me romantically. But I am proud of myself for going on a blind ass date.
The interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity. To sign up for MoRomance, visit bit.ly/moromance.
*Names have been changed for anonymity.