Look, I'm not even going to preface it with anything, with some special, witty intro that makes you guess what weird & daring thing I did. Because you couldn't guess. Why would you ever guess speed-dating? Who actually goes speed-dating?
Me, it seems.
A friend got an email about it, an event sponsored by Politics Under 30 & Generation Obama for young Democratic adults, & ultimately, we decided there was no harm in trying it out - & that even if it went terribly, we'd get a good story out of it.It wasn't that bad, honestly. In fact, it could have been kind of perfect for someone like me, someone who's not that fond of talking to strangers. You only have to talk to people for six minutes before the organizers ring a bell (or, in this case, dinged two teacups together) & you scoot on down to the next strapping young man (or, in this case, an array of mostly-entirely-unstrapping ones). Conversation goes a lot like this: "What do you do? .. Oh, cool, where are you from? ... Nice, how did you end up in DC?"
Even I can manage six minutes with a stranger who I'm guaranteed never to have to speak with again if I don't want to. I wish all of life worked like that.
Notice that I said "could have been kind of perfect," which is an indicator of what, kids? If you answered, "That it wasn't perfect," you'd be correct. Sadly, I ended up with a group of duds, including two guys who were too creepy in their compliments (please do not call me beautiful upon our first meeting), two who were recent college grads (cougartowwwwn), a few who were at least three inches shorter than me (I'm 5'5"), & a pair of less-than-conversational identical twins. I was relieved when I'd finished with the first, then two stops later, all I could think was, "ARE YOU KIDDING? I JUST DID THIS." Ding, round two.
If you're not familiar (& you shouldn't be), the way speed-dating works is that before you begin, you're given a number & a sheet of paper. After each six-minute conversation, you mark "yes" or "No" next to the number of the person you've just met with to determine whether you're interested in sharing your email address with them.
I marked yes for two people, but I've not gotten word from the organizers that anyone is interested in sharing their email addresses with me. I am either A) slightly disappointed, or B) massively relieved, though I haven't yet determined which.
Choose your own adventure?
