We met on Tinder, fell in love and got married!
When I first met Michael, the world got quiet and it was as if time slowed down the whole time we were talking. I know this sounds so cliche and romanticized, but it was true. I was the girl who always wanted to believe shit like this happened, but I never thought it was real. Over the years I had created a thick skin and became distant from the idea of actually opening up to someone and believing I not only could find love but that I was worth loving (that is a whole other post).
Michael and I met on Tinder. I was on and off dating apps for a couple of years kept deleting the apps and overall, I have mixed feelings about the platforms. However, when I got on Tinder for the last time, I had a new mindset about the apps. I didn’t want to swipe on just anyone who I found attractive or might be fun to talk to or that I wanted attention from (just being honest)… I wanted to only swipe right with someone who I actually found interesting and that I had a good feeling about. It didn’t matter to me if we matched, for the first time I wasn’t looking for attention or approval, I was looking for someone I was genuinely interested in learning more about. For about a month, I rarely went on and only swiped on two people. One of them being my now husband, Michael.
Right after I swiped with Michael, we matched and shortly after he sent me a message stating “Stop deleting your app, I’ve been wanting to ask you out”. It caught me off guard but really made my heart full. We matched in the beginning of December and didn’t meet until January 2nd. What was different about the time spent before we met in person was that we didn’t communicate all that much, which I actually really liked. Something that was challenging for me with dating apps was that I felt like before I would meet someone, we would text so often that I had already formed my thoughts and opinions about this person before I even met them.
We had been lightly texting every now and then, checking in and seeing how one another was doing – but we didn’t get into any deep conversations until we met. We made plans to meet up at a coffee shop here in Portland, Oregon in the early afternoon. I showed up at said coffee shop and was waiting for him and he never showed… I texted my sister about 15 minutes in and said “how long should I wait until I accept that I am being stood up?” and the moment I sent her that text, I get a text from Michael that says “Are you lost? Are you not coming?”. By this point, we hadn’t talked on the phone, so I felt nervous calling him for some reason, but I thought to myself… just pick up the phone and call to see what’s going on. It turns out there are two locations of the coffee shop and we never exchanged addresses as to which one we were going to go to.
We decided to meet at a different coffee shop that was in-between where we both were. I wasn’t very nervous heading over there, hearing his voice on the phone calmed my nerves. I felt excited and ready to meet this man I had been communicating with for a few weeks. I parked at the coffee shop, walked into the door and he stood up and walked over to greet me. I’m not kidding you, the second he shook my hand and introduced himself the whole world around me stopped and everything got quiet, and all of sudden it had been hours since we met. We talked about everything from careers to family to music and so much more. There was one line in particular that he said that I’ll never forget. He put his hand up with his palm facing me, waved his hand around in a clockwise circular motion, and said “there’s a lot of good going on here… how are you single?”. When he proposed to me, he recited that same line with the same hand motion, at that same coffee shop… so romantic and thoughtful.
Two weeks later he asked me to be his girlfriend, 7 months later we moved in together and the rest is history. We got engaged in March of 2017 and got married on June 15, 2019. In the comments below, I’d love to hear how you met your special someone!
Thanks for being here and taking the time to read.
Remember, be kind to others – it’s important!
Xoxox,
Jehn
