I went on seven Tinder dates in seven days

One time I was at a party and a random boy told me I was “a solid seven but he’d bang anyway.” I grimaced and walked away – I guess seven has always been my lucky number.

A few weeks single, I decided it was time to meet new people. So, this solid seven – with the encouragement of her friends and editor – decided to go on seven Tinder dates with seven boys in seven days.

I had three rules going into this project:
1. Have standards. In other words, I swiped left on people I didn’t find attractive.
2. It has to be a real date – no Netflix and chill.
3. No physical contact. (Except handshakes? Do people still do handshakes?)

I kept a journal of my week on Tinder.

Prep day

I decided to give myself a day of preparation to match with boys, get some conversation started and plan my first dates. While some boys messaged me first, I found that just a “hey” or a sassy line worked to get a good conversation going.

The rumors about Tinder being creepy as hell are definitely true. While most people use Tinder as a hookup app (and I mean we all respect that), some people take it to an entirely different level.

However, if you want to find dates, you can definitely make it happen.

I was shocked to have actual conversations with a few people and plan about three dates on the Prep Day.

Conversations ranged from the typical “omg what is ur major I cant believe we both go to Chapel Hill” to big life questions.

Day 1: The theatre boy, 21

I had a midterm and 4 boys wished me good luck. I could definitely get used to that. Between my exam and my date, I was beyond nervous. Getting ready, I listened to “Straight Outta Compton” and it felt like a video montage. That hyped me up.

My first candidate was a 21-year-old in the Theatre department.

I practically danced into Starbucks and bought my coffee as I waited for him to text me his location in the coffee shop. I warned him beforehand I did not want anyone to notice we were meeting up from Tinder.

I finally sat down across from a boy who looked just like the pictures but with way more hair and way less confidence, pretending we had talked before. We had a nice, polite conversation about international politics and our grandparents staying in Florida to avoid the cold.

I felt like a 45-year-old woman by the time it was over.

Not my first expectation of what a Tinder date would be (I expected much more drama), but it was an enjoyable talk.

Result: We didn’t talk after the date, most likely because I told him I was writing about it for a publication.

Day 2: The model who hardly speaks English, 20

My second date was set to be more dramatic from the start.

I thought something was suspicious when his name had 3 consonants in a row and our text conversations went like this.

But he looked like this:

So I decided to try it.

When he called me to suggest “I just go to his apartment” in a strong accent, I figured it out. The dude could hardly speak English.

I told him I preferred to meet in public and decided to go into the date with an open mind. Love transcends language, am I right?

We had a nice talk about his career modeling in countries like Greece, Israel and, “Italy. You know Italy, right?” The guy seriously asked me if I knew what Italy was.

The conversation continued with weird questions like, “How are you 19 without children?” and “You have boyfriend before?”

However, he was quite nice despite the cultural differences. He kept offering me free clothes and jewelry and he assured me that if I ever wanted to go his country, I could go with him and “they would treat me like a princess.”

Slightly creepy, but kind in intention.

For the entire date he kept asking me to come back to his apartment and assured me just five minutes into dinner he “liked me.” He “really liked me.”

He liked me so much we FaceTimed his friends from home. Or he FaceTimed his friends from home. I ducked under the table.

Result: I didn’t text him back after the date because I felt pressured the entire time. As a model, he seemed very used to getting what he wants and that was a turn-off.

Day 3: The musician, 20

The third date was one of the first dates I planned, and it was the one I was most excited for. My date and I decided to go to a show at the Carrboro Music Festival – but first we would hang out with his roommate and his roommate’s girlfriend.

I killed game after game of ping-pong in their living room as we talked about Carolina and the different social circles we came from. It was during this conversation that I realized how happy I was to meet people I would probably never meet in my day-to-day life.

After laughing about embarrassing party moments and our weird interests, it was brought to my attention that both my date and his roommate play guitar.Every lady loves the guitar, so I got serenaded with the classics – ya know, like “Hallelujah.” But I could only think about Shrek.

Now, take a moment to pause and imagine this moment. We’re sitting and listening to this beautiful interlude (also from Shrek) when there is a knock on the door.

Suddenly, two boys burst in and start fist fighting in the front room. We stand in shock for a minute before one boy screeches, “Aren’t you guys gonna help?” My date goes to help his friend while I was sitting on the couch in shock.

They pushed the perpetrator out of the house and then locked the door. There’s the drama. My date asks his friend, “What the fuck happened?” as the friend sulks and walks away.

I never found out what happened.

After that traumatic event, we decide to leave for the show, a ska, calypso and jazz – concert at Cat’s Cradle.

Horrifyingly, the crowd was almost entirely middle-aged adults mating with each other in tie-dye outfits. I tried to focus on the stage, but it was hard when Aunt Jill and Uncle Bill were grinding on each other three feet from me.

To make matters worse, the roommate and his girlfriend insisted on pushing up to the stage. Standing next to us was a man, nearly 7 feet tall, who knew all the words to every song and defined dancing as jumping vertically up and down at a million miles an hour.

The music was good, the environment horrible and my connection with my date? Just OK.

Result: My date and I talked a bit after our date, but I didn’t feel a connection and soon stopped texting him back.

Day 4: The foreign exchange student, 20

I was exhausted trying to keep so many boys entertained. I know today’s quip is “these hoes ain’t loyal,” but I am genuinely curious how people manage to entertain so many suitors at once.

My date for the day was an insanely attractive foreign exchange student from an English speaking country.

He poked fun at my American accent – especially since I’m Midwestern – in front of The Daily Grind barista, who I could feel judging me because it was quite obvious my date had never heard my voice before.

We had a really interesting talk about American social culture versus the social culture in his country, highlighted by the question, “Why do Americans get so sexual on the dance floor and then not have sex afterwards?” We talked Econ and politics, shitting on Donald Trump.

I awkwardly fell out of my seat once, spilled a bit of coffee on myself later and accidentally let slip the phrase, “American girls don’t say no” when we were discussing dancing. I was preparing myself to never see this guy again.

However, the date was lovely and I was sad when I had to leave for a meeting. He assured me we should hang out again.

Result: While we texted a bit after the date and he invited me to text him when I wanted to hang out again, I have been too nervous. Mostly because I am writing this story. Shout out if you see this – text me plz.

Day 5: The N.C. State boy, 20

By Day 5, I was stressed about organizing my last few dates. While I was talking to a lot of boys, none seemed to be inviting me out.

Until I messaged State Boy.

State Boy was so excited about matching with me, he offered to drive to Chapel Hill within the first 24 hours of my message.

We messaged with a sickening amount of emojis and compliments – which of course made me suspicious. Because when are boys ever overly nice unless they’re planning to make you feel bad about it?

I mentioned time and time again that I just wanted to hang out. He seemed cool about this until about an hour before we were supposed to meet up, when he asked me to define, “I don’t hook up on the first date.” Annoyed, I told him it was coffee or nothing.

He met me for coffee.

I hate that stereotypes exist but this boy met every bad stereotype given to N.C. State. When discussing my Middle Eastern Studies minor, he exclaimed, “You gonn’ know ‘Ayy-Rab-ik real soon!” He later told me about a car accident he almost got into the night before, but don’t worry readers. It was because of “some dumb Asians.”

I awkwardly smiled my way through coffee and then said I needed to sleep at 10:30 pm. Carolina students don’t sleep, silly State boy.

Result: I stopped texting this boy back, which made him quite angry. Several times he told me to give him another chance, despite the fact I made it clear in a polite way I wasn’t interested.

Day 6: The D1 athlete, 20

By the sixth day, I was tired of wearing real clothes and doing my hair in the early stages of Hurricane Joaquin. So, for my Chipotle date, I wore leggings and a t-shirt.

I wasn’t too worried, because when I asked my athlete date about his interests, he said:

Everyone loves Chipotle, so I figured this would be a fine date – either way I get a burrito out of the deal.

Again with the stereotypes, but when I say we only talked about sports and cars, we only talked about sports and cars. I mostly smiled and nodded.

We talked about comedies for a bit. And country music. More smiling. More nodding.

Result: I don’t like sports and cars. He doesn’t like that I don’t like sports and cars. We had a peaceful drift away from each other.

Day 7: The freshman, 18

A bit morally opposed to seeing a freshman, I rationalized with myself that I’m only 19 and not at a party picking up intoxicated newbies.

Our conversation actually started when I messaged him about his profile picture that had a super nice car in the background.

I met him at Starbucks and realized that in real life he looked a lot more like Jim Carrey than I realized. Not necessarily a bad thing.

We talked about his indecisiveness in choosing his major and I tried really hard to not crush his optimism about classes – I promise they can’t be “that bad.”

I found out he’s from the same area as me, has the same music taste and can almost keep up with my sarcasm. Then I found out he’s a Tab reader.

I awkwardly explained that the date was part of a story and he got really quiet for the remainder of our conversation. Understandable.

Result: I didn’t talk to the freshman after our date, but he assured me he would read the story.

Reflection

After seven days on Tinder, I realized how exhausting casual dating really is.

It is much different than meeting your boyfriend in class, going on dates for a few weeks and then spending the entirety of your relationship in bed eating pizza.

However, I also learned it’s a really great way to meet people you wouldn’t normally meet. I was so happy to talk to people with different college experiences, interests and backgrounds than my friends and me.

I do believe that what you see on Tinder is what you get. Every boy I met fit the “stereotype” I could gather from his profile.

I may have not met my soul mate on Tinder, but some people have. I would encourage everyone to step outside his or her comfort zone, message that cute person first, and be confident that you could be everything they are looking for.

Everyone I spoke to about this project was amazed that I could get so many dates in such a short amount of time or that I had the confidence to put myself out there.

This project just proved to myself that nothing bad can happen by taking a leap of faith, and when you love yourself enough to be confident, you can do (or just date) anyone you want.