My Speed Dating Experience

Molly is a 25-year-old single female who lives and works in Chicago. She is a young professional employed in the banking industry, who decided to venture into the world of speed dating. Here is her personal story:

I found speed dating to be quite a different experience and it was something I tried in a light-hearted manner just to see what goes on and what type of people go there. It was held at a bar, a natural setting to meet people. It was a casual, relaxed atmosphere where you could have a couple of drinks to make it easier to talk about yourself. You have three minutes to talk to each person. They give you a scorecard of all the guys you are going to talk to and then you have to mark ‘yes' or ‘no,' if you would like to talk to them again.

They say to go by yourself and not to go with a group or a friend. That, I did not follow. I thought it would be kind of awkward going by myself, so I had a good friend of mine come along with me. Prior to the actual speed dating, there's a bar with people mingling, so I guess that's why they say it's better to go alone, so you are out there trying to meet new people before the event actually starts. So I was just looking around with my friend, seeing the types of people that were there. Most of them, by looks alone, weren't that great.

Once the speed dating actually started, we sat in one spot and the guys would rotate to the different tables. As far as the experience itself, I would say it was quite boring. It was interesting in a way because you got to meet so many people in such a short period of time and get all of those first date questions out of the way, you know, the basics.

But that was also the part that I didn't like about it at the same time, because you find yourself saying the same thing to 20 or 30 different people, or how many ever you met that night. It's quite repetitive, quite boring and at that point, you are just looking for somebody to come out with different questions, different things that somebody else didn't say. I think there was a person like that, who would ask something completely out of the ordinary, that wasn't what you talked about with the 15 guys from before. That person would definitely stand out in my mind at least. The standard questions were, ‘What do you do?' ‘Where do you work?' ‘Where do you live?' ‘What school did you go to?' I found that experience to be quite boring.

After the event, you are welcome to stay and mingle. I don't think we took part in that for very long. You hand your scorecard in to the organizers and then, if both you and the guy marked ‘yes,' you exchange e-mail addresses. So, they send you his e-mail and yours to him. And then it's whoever wants to take the first initiative and send the first e-mail. It's like the first phone call at that point because you both have each other's e-mail addresses and you both want to talk to each other, but now who's going to make the first step? So that kind of puts you in an awkward situation, so you are back at square one.

My personal experience was, I had seven or eight matches and I probably talked to the majority of them going back and forth with e-mails. At this point, I have no idea who anybody was as far as looks-wise. All I have is names and e-mails and I do not know who they are after meeting so many people in one night. I couldn't put a name with a face, so it has turned into a blind date situation now. Although you already met and talked to them, you have no idea who anybody is.

I believe there were three people that I met out and, I must say, two of the dates were a lot of fun. Two different people, really energetic, good conversation, fun, sarcastic and we got along. However, looks-wise you could tell most of these people were dating-challenged. They probably have a hard time initially meeting people just off of looks alone. We all know as much as we don't like to admit that we judge people by their looks to begin with. You see somebody and if you find them attractive, then naturally you are going to want to talk to them and if you see somebody and they are not so attractive, you may not want to talk to them.

I think speed dating gives those types of people the chance to talk to somebody before being judged on looks alone. They have their three minutes. They have their opportunity to get their personality out there and like I said, a couple of them are very nice guys that had a lot going for them. But they weren't somebody I would click with off the bat. I'm tall and I am not into dating guys who are shorter than me at all. It is something that I am not comfortable with and meeting someone shorter than me makes me think automatically that this is going to go nowhere so I already had that in the back of my mind. So I went out on one date each with 3 different guys. I never went on a second date with any of them.

All in all, the speed dating experience was interesting and I think it's a better option for people who have more of a hard time getting a first date. Most of the guys that were at the speed dating event were young and successful guys. You don't come across too many losers. The crowd itself as far as where they were going and types of people were of somewhat quality. I wouldn't say it was the most successful experience for myself, but it was fun and something new to try.

Molly's speed dating story is just one in a field of many. There are some people who have met the match of their dreams, which have resulted in marriage. There are others, like Molly who enjoyed the experience, but realized it was not right for her personally. Whatever the case may be, speed dating is a harmlessly fun and innovative way to meet people.