Graphic by Penelope Taylor ’20
BY ELEANOR HARRIS ’20
What better way to celebrate Halloweekend than with your first-ever date? We sent sophomores Sarah* and Grace* across the street to Wow Frozen Yogurt for a sweet treat.
Sarah, who told us that she is “initially introverted,” loves sewing, history and trashy TLC shows. Grace is “both shy and loud at the same time,” and listed crocheting and listening to NPR as her hobbies. It sounded like a perfect match to us.
In the end, Sarah and Grace’s date included not only frozen yogurt but a skating session, a late-night campus walk and — wait for it — holding hands. Spooky and sweet!
Sarah: I had never been on a date before, and I just felt like, why not go out and try this?
Grace: I told my friends it was for the meme, and I told myself it’s because I’m lonely. I was expecting it to be kind of awkward. Best case scenario, we’ll get along really well and it’ll be great. Realistically, it’ll probably be awkward.
Sarah: I was really nervous. Like really nervous. My friends were very excited for me. One of my friends was like, “I’m going to live vicariously through you!”
Grace: We met at Wow. I showed up five minutes early and waited outside. She actually went into Wow and I was like, “That might be my date!”
Sarah: She walked in. I was like, okay, the email said to wear red or pink and she had a pink shirt, so I turned to her and said “Hi, are you here for the MoRomance date?”
Grace: She was cute. She seemed very nice and funny. She had really nice hair. If she’s reading this — you have a really nice haircut.
Sarah: I really liked her hair. I think her hair is really nice. I thought she was really cute. I felt a little nervous, but once we started talking, it was good. We went and got the frozen yogurt. We actually were going to check out and I accidentally knocked the bowl and spilled a bunch of my toppings, so that was embarrassing.
Grace: It was a little awkward. We did that thing where you say a word and then shovel food into your mouth so you can hide the silence. We did the kind of icebreakers that teachers make you do, like “What’s your major?” and “Where are you from?”
Sarah: We talked about stuff we did over the summer and fun stories and how we were doing in the semester. There were some instances where we would get to the end of one part of the conversation and there would be a little bit of silence, but it was just an awkwardness of two people meeting for the first time. It was nice and comfortable.
Grace: We had similar senses of humor. We’re both in the humanities, so we could talk about that, which was good. I tend to just over-talk when I meet people, but it was nice.
Sarah: After we finished our yogurt and we’d been talking for a while, I asked her if she wanted to go to Spooky Skate in Chapin.
Grace: There was a wait so we got food and sat down, and my friend came to join us and we all kind of chatted. People kept coming up to her to say hi, and I was like, “You have friends!”
Sarah: Whenever one of us would almost lose our balance while skating, we would hold each other’s hand. That was really nice.
Grace: I almost fell about 50 times but didn’t, which is always a plus. It was fun! After that, we just walked around campus.
Sarah: We got to Brigham and Safford and I was like, “I don’t really know where we’re walking to,” so we ended up doing three circles of the campus, just talking.
Grace: We literally just did a loop four times and then I had to go to a party for a club. We walked to Torrey and said our goodbyes.
Sarah: I walked with her into Torrey. I got her number and then we hugged and said good night.
Grace: I think it went very well. I have no idea if she likes me, but I think she’s a very nice person — definitely someone I would hang out with again.
Sarah: I was really excited, because I’ve never gone on a date or done something like this before, and I felt like I had a nice connection with her.
Grace: I had fun! I wasn’t sitting in my dorm on a Friday night eating chips out of a bag. I thought even if it’s bad, it’ll be an experience. And I was pleasantly surprised.
Graphic by Carrie Clowers ’18
These interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity. To sign up for MoRomance, visit bit.ly/moromance.
*Names have been changed for anonymity.