After being single for most of this year, I realized that waiting for my perfect match to fall out of the sky just wasn’t a real strategy. It was time to take matters into my own hands. The world of dating apps felt like the obvious place to start, but it was also incredibly overwhelming, especially since I hadn’t been on the market for three years.
My first reaction was to brush it off, telling myself it was too formal and I’d just meet someone organically. But then it hit me: my university days are long gone. Life is more serious now, and my friends are more interested in quiet nights in than playing my wing-woman at a club. So, I decided to embrace it, inviting them over to help build my profile with a side of pizza.
I fired up the laptop and came across Match, and thought this could be a risk-free way of testing out new waters. The initial process of signing up took about 5 minutes, which would have taken less if I hadn’t been so fussy. After finishing adding my interests, I set about revealing to Match all of my wants and needs in a man.
There were quite a few questions on casual and serious topics. Nothing too taxing though, kind of what I expected. I didn’t mind as I saw it more of Match sieving through any potential date disasters before they got to me. But then came the hardest part… picking a profile pic. Do I pout? Should it be full bodied so they can see my figure? Do I look weird/ desperate/ attractive?? My friends and I trailed back through my Facebook profile and phone which in itself was quite an enjoyable trip down memory lane but I resorted to a classic shameless selfie.
That was it. Complete. I’m all ready for browsing and the matching to commence! Match gives three options of contact: message, IM and wink. The good thing is you don’t have to wait around for them to hopefully match with you, you can get in contact straight away. So, I threw a few winks here and there to see where it got me. I waited (what felt like two hours but was probably 10 mins) and voila an instant message popped up on my screen.
From then on, I became slightly addicted, checking my Match messages like it was my phone. This may seem sad and school girl-ish but it was just so exciting!
My main concern was the free dating trial lasts 3 days. How could I possibly tell if a site would work for me in a small amount of time? The only answer is: it is what you make of it. I was sure to be proactive, updated my profile with every detail and actively looked for and reached out to men that took my fancy. It’s actually a reasonable amount of time to discover if the site is the right way for you and would definitely say to give it a go because really… what do you have to lose when it’s free!?
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