I Found Love Dating During The COVID-19 Pandemic & Here Are 6 Things I've Learned

Online dating can be so weird

To be fair, online dating could be pretty weird pre-pandemic, but things got a whole new level of strange when the world started to shut down.

I found that people were increasingly more rude while trying to chit chat, almost as if they felt it didn't matter what they said to others. Perhaps people felt like there was no point trying anymore, so they felt they could just say whatever they felt like?

I received way more unsolicited nudes at the beginning of the pandemic than I ever did before COVID-19. Please don't send pictures of your junk to someone without asking them first if they want to see it!

Virtual dating is awkward

Do you remember when we all collectively transitioned to having online meetings and that initial absolute awkwardness of trying to navigate people on mute, Wi-Fi glitching and more? Well, it was way worse for virtual dating.

If you already have a rapport with someone in person, it isn't as awful to transition to video get-togethers — but without that knowledge of how someone communicates, it can just be a total disaster of awkward pauses and interrupting each other.

I do have some advice on the whole situation, though.

If you're about to go on a virtual date, have one drink beforehand and then pour yourself one drink for the actual date. While you're chatting with the person, make sure you have something in your hands to play with so you're not constantly reaching for your drink out of desperation to ease the weirdness.

I would usually pass a crystal back and forth between my hands, but one of my friends told me she unravelled a mitten from Dollarama. Whatever works!

Health before hookups

I have absolutely no problem with people who are straightforward about what they're looking for on the apps, but I swear, the horniness at a time where we weren't even supposed to be seeing our close family was wild.

The number of offers I received to hook up was unprecedented. All I could think was, "Sir? In a pandemic?!"

I get that loneliness was at an all-time high due to isolation, but that doesn't really give you an excuse to smash mouths with a stranger you met on the internet at a time when we had even stopped shaking hands.

Meeting up takes navigating

So, when you do finally get to a point where you feel comfortable getting to know someone a bit more, what do you do?

I met a few nice guys while virtual dating, but most of them fizzled out just due to how awful it is to try and keep up the video calls without being able to figure out if you have that spark with someone, the way you can in person.

At one of the times when Ontario wasn't in lockdown, I decided to have a dinner date with someone on an outdoor patio. It was a little overwhelming to be near someone not in my bubble for the first time in ages, but I eventually relaxed.

Unfortunately, I relaxed so much that I ended up splitting dessert with him and later had a minor freakout that we had both used our forks on the same creme brulee and neither of us was vaccinated at the time.

The next meetup I had was at a park where we sat on opposite ends of a bench. It was hilarious, awkward and adorable, and it ended up being the start of a wonderful relationship that I'm currently ridiculously happy in.

Uncomfortable conversations need to happen

One of the weird things to navigate was trying to subtly figure out how stringent people were being with their social distancing.

My parents and grandmother were included in my bubble during the lockdown pre-vaccination, and I knew I'd be wrecked if I passed something on to them, so I tried to be as diligent as I could about public safety measures.

Not everyone feels that way (or has high-risk close contacts to worry about), which is their prerogative, but trying to have a conversation about people's stance on things was always a little tricky.

Patience pays off

After years on the apps and navigating dating during an actual pandemic, I found my guy.

We went through it all — weird virtual dates where the video would glitch, awkward convos about vaccinations, surviving socially distanced hangouts and eventually making it official. Now, I couldn't be happier.

Pandemic dating sucks, but it also sort of forces you to cut out some of the bullshit and start to get to really know someone right away.

I know it's hard, but if you're out there and looking for love, I believe in you!