Cyber Love

It was 2006 and I felt like love would never come my way. I thought no man would ever be able to put up with my weirdness and emotions and that I would be single forever. Then I thought about internet dating. I had seen the adverts and I thought they were ludicrous with their high costs and promises of true love. But something inside me still wanted to give it a go, so I joined a dating website which was completely free. I thought that if I didn't meet anyone, at least I wouldn't have spent any money. For the first few weeks, I logged on every day and had the usual messages from guys who were obviously only after one thing. I wanted someone I could possibly have a relationship with, not something meaningless. Some were really rude, some were flattering and some just damn strange. I logged on one day and thought, "Right, this is useless, I am going to cancel!" and I started reading about how to cancel my account and make sure they didn't spam me with emails afterwards.

Then just that minute, I saw I had a new message in my inbox. It was from someone called Michael. I decided to read his message, his picture looked friendly and he sounded genuine. I felt like we had things in common so I messaged him back and we began to email back and forth for the next weeks. I felt like I could chat to him for hours, I felt like he was genuine and I felt nervous at the thought we may actually meet up and go on a date.

On September 1st 2006 we went on our first date. I have never been so nervous than what I was on that afternoon waiting outside Charing Cross station. I wore the most awful outfit; a strapless top, denim skirt, footless tights and red sparkly shoes. I shuffled into a corner, hoping he would notice me first and come up to me because I wasn't wearing my glasses. He did come up to me and I breathed a sigh of relief that a) He looked normal and b) He looked the same as he did in his picture and wasn't some 50 year old crazy man.

We went for a lovely meal, we ate strawberries in Hyde Park and talked about anything and everything. We went to a vodka bar and I got drunk. I could only be fun and chatty with alcohol inside me, I was that nervous. There was no awkwardness and felt like we really got along. When I said goodbye to him at Waterloo station, I knew I would see him again and I had an great feeling inside. I didn't know what would happen in the future and I didn't know if he liked me in 'that' way. We met up again and we started 'seeing eachother', then we became 'boyfriend and girlfriend' and I could tell my friends that I had finally found a man!

I fell in love which is something I thought would never happen to me. And it was all thanks to a little dating site. I don't normally believe in fate and all that cheesy marlarky. However if I had cancelled my site account an hour earlier, I would have never seen his message and I would never found someone who would eventually become my soulmate. That was over 5 years ago now and I can honestly say, joining a dating site and introducing myself to "cyber love" was the best thing I ever did. I used to be shy about telling people I met my boyfriend online but over the past few years I have realised it is a rather special and unique story to tell. I have seen other friends find partners online and that just proves it can happen, it just takes the right match and the right time.

xoxo