I used to be a digital skeptic. My nickname is Analog Girl after all. Ten years ago, I even lugged around a paper planner, feverishly flipping through pages to schedule appointments. I even refused to purchase an E-reader because I felt like there was nothing comparable to holding an actual book and marking in the margins.
That all changed one night after reading his tweets. “I’m tired of being owned by corporations” and “I want to be free.” He then talked about wanting to build a movement. After having worked with the Children’s Defense Fund, and several non-profit organizations I wanted to help. We exchanged phone numbers via DM to begin building this movement. Our first convo was about two hours and it was free of awkward pauses or filler lines. Eventually two hours turned into six hours, with text & instant messages in between, and our conversations started veering into the personal and the profound. Before we met and even now, we’re “What’s the point of this conversation?” people – rarely spending more than 30 minutes on a call, but here we were talking about the meaning of life, revolution and happiness. We also wrote mission statements for our budding organization and fantasized about our future – free of consumer debt.
He lived in New York at the time and I lived in Chicago and we were both involved with other people. Through conversation we got to scan each other’s hearts and in the process became best friends. We were free from the distractions of name brand clothing and first impression improv. In the beginning the only thing that we could get familiar with was the tone of our voices. When he met me it wasn’t the size of my behind or the height of my heel that attracted him. When I met him it wasn’t the number of drinks he bought me or the smell of his cologne that mesmerized me. He was attracted to my hustle and my desire to help him get his stuff together. I was attracted to his sense of humor and his candidness.
On February 24, 2010 when we got married (one year after dating), we became one out of five relationships that began online, and we’re now at 4 years together and in much better places than our previous marriages, as this is both my husband’s and my second marriage. We were both divorced after 5 years in our previous marriages. So seriously, true love may be waiting for you in gigabytes and html…
BMWK Family: Would you consider dating online? Why or why not?