I have gone out on a lot of first dates with women whom I have met online during the past 6-months and it was during my most recent date that it occurred to me: I tell certain stories, and facts about myself, that I almost always divulge during the course of a date. Whenever I’m on a date where we go out to eat I always mention before we order that 1. I like to share food, and 2. The story of how I became a College Basketball Coach (which is completely fine-tuned). I also tend to break out the same stories when asked about my family, college, close friends or job. While I don’t try to necessarily steer the conversation toward these topics the way a politician might try to control the course of an interview so that it best fits the prepared answers they are most confident with, many first dates involve similar questions and topics of conversation.

Personally I think that there’s anything wrong with retelling many of the same stories, or sharing the same personal information on each first date, since everyone is going to react with differently. Furthermore, how a date will react upon learning these things about me isn’t always the same, and therefore the conversation might take any number of turns at that point, including them asking me more questions on the subject, sharing their own similar stories or changing the topic of conversation all together.

Some might view this approach with skepticism and believe that my general demeanor on first dates is apathetic or even condescending, but I would respond by saying that first dates are introductions and there are only so many things you are going to say during that first meeting. For me it is important that I always feel comfortable during a first date, and will often go with the natural flow of conversation. Of course, having this approach means that I tell many of the same stories and facts about myself since I know going into the date that I’m comfortable saying those things to pretty much anyone. From there, how much more in depth I talk about my life depends on how the date is going and whether or not during the course of our interaction I feel comfortable enough to let more stories and facts about me naturally flow out.