This post is written in collaboration.
The norm of finding love has drastically changed over the years. My Grandparents would forever ask me “are you courting yet?” when I was in my early teens, and I remember rolling my eyes and continuing to type a reply on MSN to the guy I had a crush on. This guy happened to have absolutely no interest in me, and just used to enjoy the chase I later found out.
Later on in my teens it turned to Facebook, Bebo and MySpace. MySpace was more for my fantasy crushing and listening to soundtracks from hot indie dudes, Bebo I was (sadly) known as Queen of and I think this may have been the platform that introduced me to my passion and expertise in the field I am now in, but it was exceptional for flirting. I don’t know if anybody remembers but you used to get something called ‘daily loves’ and it meant you could give three hearts to out to different people. It was fair to say I had a lot of love on my counter, and boy did it help with my dating credentials. I remember starting Sixth Form and some boy coming up to me saying “Ah you’re Daisy from Bebo” – fancy that.
After this period came the online dating apps, and after several teenage heartbreaks…I was more than ready to explore them. So the first one I tried was sleazy, and dare I say it – a tad dangerous. So I quickly deleted my account and tried one that you had to pay for, and it worked for a while. I went on a few dates, but then quickly realised I wasn’t ready to commit. So I came off for a couple of years, fell in love with another of my teenage crushes, broke up very badly with my teenage crush and jumped straight back into the online dating scene.
It has transformed drastically since I had last used it and I had to get my head round it all again. So I decided to use different dating groups, apps and websites; it worked. So I remember signing up for one that came up whilst travelling around one summer, and it was an Isle of Man Dating Site and it revolutionised how I perceived the dating world.
Nobody knew me. I wasn’t ‘Daisy from Bebo’ and I certainly wasn’t someone’s teenage crush. It gave me a chance to get to know new, exciting and actually really interesting guys. It also helped to heal my heart from a very bad relationship previous, so this little dating site enabled me to feel like me again. It gave me strength, confidence and also a whole new database of contacts that I can now call friends and acquaintances. I didn’t find love on this particular site but I did find myself and I don’t think you can top that.
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