I Met My Boyfriend On Tinder: A Year & A Half Later

Sooo this is my first *actual* personal post, but anyone that knows me knows that I am more than happy to share my life & emotions on a regular basis (hahaha it's both a blessing and a curse to feel everything so deeply :P). I had been wanting to write this blog post for a long time, and felt like now would be perfect. Not only because I'm GRADUATING COLLEGE IN A WEEK (WHAT THE HECK!!) but also because tomorrow my boyfriend and I are celebrating our year-and-a-half anniversary, and I thought, why not use this opportunity to take a stroll down memory lane & share the story of how we met? It's pretty spectacular, and is still one of the craziest things to me. Sure, everyone thinks (or should think) that how they and their significant other met is special; I'm a HUGE believer in the idea of fate because I've seen and experienced too much to not. If you want to read my story of meant-to-be, keep reading! These are the main three things I want to get across throughout my re-telling...things that I just want everyone to know and take away from this:

1. It is NOT shameful to meet your love interest/significant other online or on a dating app. We have so much incredible technology accessible to us, USE IT! Take advantage of the connections it can create.

2. Sometimes people will see your happiness and it will bring out their true colors. Let it happen; you need to know the truth about them and their priorities. There are times when people who you thought were so close to you will turn on you, and will have only been in your life for a short period of time to act as a catalyst. That sounds awful, but it's the reality of some relationships/friendships.

3. Take risks! BE SAFE WHILE DOING SO, but take them when you can. Don't let that little voice inside your head scare you from leaving your comfort zone.

So grab your popcorn and take a seat somewhere comfy, you may be here for a bit. This may be a really long read, I'm not sure, but I hope you enjoy it. I'm not trying to brag about my boyfriend, our love, or anything else in my life whatsoever. What I am wanting to do, though, is possibly open the eyes of people that may be where I was two Septembers ago, because just one small choice can completely change your life.

It was late September, 2017, and I had recently returned back to USC a month prior, ready to start my Junior year. My old roommate/best friend (not giving names) just broke up with her boyfriend; it was messy, and I was helping her through it. She was doing okay, and I was so excited that we were back together after the summer.

Shortly after she ended things with her ex, she got a Tinder, and quickly met a guy at school. She would tell me that I should get one, but I was really opposed to it. Like reaaally opposed. I wasn't into the hooking-up thing, had dealt with enough jerks in my past, and told myself that I knew the types of guys I'd meet on there: desperate, weird, creepy, or all of the above. "No thanks, it's not for me," I'd say. "I'd rather meet someone the normal, organic way." She'd laugh. "But you're not meeting anyone 'the normal, organic way.'" It was true.

One night, I don't remember when, she finally convinced me to make an account. So there we were, laying in our beds a few feet apart, aimlessly scrolling through pictures of random guys. Ugh. Such a shallow, stupid thing to be doing. He's cute, but ehh. Why am I doing this?! It's not like I'm going to actually meet a decent guy. Left, left, left, right, left, left, right, left (left is "not interested," right is "interested"). From time to time, I'd see message notifications pop up in the corner. After scrolling through the cluster of cheesy pick-up-lines or boring "hey's," I sighed, exited the app, and fell asleep.

My next few days with the app were basically the same. Swiping quickly, looking at the messages and matches I was receiving, and hopelessly exiting the app. Until, I stumbled across Leo.

I swear on my life, I felt a surge of something in that moment. Next to his name was an Israeli flag and a Brazilian flag, which either meant that he was Israeli, Brazilian, Jewish, or all three. He had pictures with his sister, friends, and of him playing soccer, all of which were painted with genuine smiles. His bio highlighted some his interests: soccer, drums, Disneyland, barista, and maybe some other things? I can't remember. But what I can remember is the feeling I had when I saw those cute, brown curls and beautiful blue eyes. And that's something I won't write out because I think you get the point. I was instantly head-over-heels. Then, as if the world stopped, something pushed me to message him.

I wrote him this painfully embarrassing long message (long for a first message, anyway) about how "I don't normally message guys on here or even respond to any, but I [thought he] may be Jewish and I am too, and [his] eyes are really pretty!" Oh god, lol. What was I thinking!! Well, surely not that a year and a half later I'd be here.

To my surprise, he responded quickly! My heart was pounding with each message we sent back and forth. We couldn't stop talking!

To his surprise, I made him wait a whole three weeks to meet. Yup, I know. I had my reasons; my top one was that if he was a good guy that was actually interested in getting to know me, he would wait. And he did. We talked all day, every day. Plus, of course, I was so nervous to meet up in person! What if his personality wasn't anything like how he was when he texted? What if we didn't have chemistry in person? What if he was a creep? Sure, I had added him on other forms of social media to see that he was legitimately who he said he was, but still. You never know. What if, what if, what if. I couldn't stop thinking about the worst, because no, this couldn't possibly work out. It was too good to be true. But what if I had clung to those thoughts of fear?

Since this is already turning out to be way longer than expected, I'll cut some things. We ended up going out and having our first date in a PUBLIC PLACE (need to emphasize this because seriously if you're meeting someone for the first time, please do it in a safe way. Meet in a public place, God-forbid this is a person with bad intentions or something). After that, we couldn't stop seeing each other. Our next date was the following week at Disneyland since we both had passes, then a haunted maze event because it was almost Halloween, and we also spent Halloween together! On November 4th, we made it official. ALSO, the ironic, super weird thing is that my boyfriend actually lives a few blocks over from my old roommate, and I had been to her house multiple times not even knowing!

The next few months were absolutely magical, it felt like a fairytale unfolding. It still didn't feel real. How on earth could this possibly have happened?? We clicked so well, became best friends, and fell in love so quickly & naturally.

I could have very easily, accidentally swiped past Leo on the app. There had been many guys I unintentionally denied when I first got the app because I had just been clicking the "not interested" button multiple times and wasn't paying attention...Leo could have been one of those. I also could never have even downloaded the app in the first place, or had not met my old roommate that pushed me to do it. Or, she may have never been able to convince me, etc. etc. The list goes on because our entire lives are constructed this way. There are so many pieces in Leo and my's story that could have shifted and created an entirely different puzzle.

Happy Anniversary to my sweet Leo, the love of my life who I count my blessings for every day <3 Not only am I [clearly] proud of our story, but I am so proud of our growth as both individuals and together, harmoniously. We have encountered and overcome so much & I can't wait for what lies ahead. I love you!

With Love, Lindsay <3