Earlier this month, the Kennesaw Activities Board put
on a speed dating night in The Loft as part of their
“Week of Hot Lovin”, a series of Valentine’s Day-themed
events leading up to the holiday.
I’ve never been in a relationship, and lately, I’ve really
been in the mood to change that, so when our
Editor-in-Chief brought up the speed dating event as
something to potentially write a story about, I decided
to go a step further and take part in it.
The evening of the event rolled around, and I headed
to campus feeling a little nervous. I wasn’t sure what
I was about to get myself into. Would it be awkward?
Would someone make things weird? Would I end up
embarrassing myself? Or would I somehow manage to
finally find myself a partner? Well… there was only one
way to find out.
I walked into The Loft, and the first thing I noticed was a
table with a bunch of catering tins on it. There was free
food?? Chicken alfredo from Olive Garden; I hadn’t even
known about that part!
We were all told to find somewhere to sit while we
waited for the event to start, so I grabbed a seat at a
long table in the center of the room that had been
decorated with a red tablecloth and heart-shaped
placemats. A few moments later, another girl sat across
from me. We started talking, and one of the first things
she asked was if I like girls, which, in fact, I do.
What are the chances that the first person I met at the event was one of the
only other queer people, if not the only other queer person there?
We continued to talk for a few minutes, mainly small talk about stuff like
our majors and our hobbies. We were getting along well, and we discovered
that we have some things in common; we found out that we both like video
games, and when I mentioned that I’m in the fencing club here, she told me
that she used to fence when she was a kid!
At one point during our conversation, she got
a little flirty. She compared my gray eyes to
those of the Greek goddess Athena. Oh my
gosh???
Eventually, it was time for the event to
start. Before the actual speed dating,
there was a brief presentation about
the five love languages: physical touch,
words of affirmation, quality time, gift giving and acts of service. Afterward, we
were ready to start mingling. We were
all told to get up and find someone new
to sit across from and that we had two
minutes to get to know them.
The fact that they had everyone shuffle
around and let us choose on our own who to
sit across from actually made the event way
more queer-friendly than a traditional speed
dating format (in which men shift along the tables
while women remain seated on the opposite side).
I wish they would’ve advertised that aspect of it; it
would’ve been great to meet more than one other queer
person there.
Anyway, we went through a few rounds of speed dates, and it went
well enough, but no one was as memorable to me as the girl I met at
the beginning. So, when the staff told everyone to pick someone to pair up
with for activity stations, I made a beeline to her.
The activity stations included a game called “What’s in the Box?” where
one person has to put their hand in a box and describe the object inside to
their partner, who had to guess what the object was; a Valentine’s-themed
Jeopardy game; and a station that they called “face painting”, but not in the
traditional sense. Instead, staff members would (badly) draw portraits of the
attendees on paper with a marker.
The two of us started with “What’s in the Box?”, with me
putting my hand in and her guessing. I wasn’t sure
what I was touching, but it turned out to be a
bright red wig.
After we were done with that, we couldn’t
find an open spot at any of the stations,
so we sat and chatted for a while. At
some point, she ended up telling me
about something that she was worried
might be a deal breaker for me in terms
of relationships, and… unfortunately, it
was.
Regardless, we kept hanging out for
the rest of the event, because we were
getting along really well and we didn’t
mind just being friends. Eventually, a spot
opened up at the “face painting” station, so
we went and got our portraits drawn. Once the
staff members were done drawing us, she had
the idea for the two of us to draw portraits of each
other. We spent the remainder of the event on that,
and they both turned out pretty well. Once we were
done with that, it was time to leave.
So, I didn’t quite get a partner out of speed dating, but I came
close, and at least I got a new friend, a fun night, and some free
chicken alfredo out of it.