One click of the mouse changed our lives. It was a Sunday night in May a little after 11pm and I finally decided to really put myself out there; I became a paying member of JDate. I decided during the setup period I would check single women within 60 miles of Marlton. I also decided to increase my height requirement to 5’5’’. After I checked all the other boxes I was looking for, I clicked the submit button. Poof! RA02 opened up on my screen. I started to read RA02’s profile and l liked what I read. I decided to email her that night but thought I would take a very different approach. I came up with a list of challenging questions she had to think about. I wanted to get to know RA02 as the person, not the username. So I started off with these two questions:
- If you had to fill a table of 8 for a function, who would be your eight people, excluding family members?
- If you were inducted into a hall of fame who would give your introductory speech?
I finished the email and hit send. Now the waiting game began. I would say that the chances she would email me back were pretty slim; that’s just how internet dating goes. But, sure enough, the following day I came home from work and the little email envelope was lit up. I was excited she wrote me back so I clicked on the little envelope and there it was an email from JDate welcoming me to the site. Wow, what a swing of emotions I had. I was kind of bummed the entire rest of the night until about 10:30 when I heard those famous words: “You’ve got mail.” Hooray, I thought! Could this be it? Nope, once again, it was a promotional email but this time I decided to stay positive and watch TV to pass the time and have a good laugh.
It was only after I watched TV, and was brushing my teeth, that I heard those famous words again. I ran to my computer, clicked on the inbox and there it was; RA02 had responded. Two weeks later we had our first date, on June 16th, and the rest is history.
Update from Robyn:
Mere weeks after our first date, Eli knew I was the right girl for him. Though I was guarded, and it took me some time to let him into my heart to fall in love with him, he won me over and we were engaged to be married only one day shy of our 6 month anniversary. Our wedding is now set for November of this year.
What also makes this story interesting is that Eli is one of three brothers. Both of his brothers have met their fiancée andwife on JDate. His younger brother got married a few weeks ago, we are set for November and his older brother is set to be married in July 2012. So JDate has really become a family affair! I’m now in the process of trying to get my brother to sign up, too!
Robyn and Eli
South Bound Brook, New Jersey