We met online… four years later

This is the story of how Dan and I met.

On March 17th, 2006, I drove to DC for the second time in my life. I’d only made one trip for professional reasons. This trip was different. It was on this trip that I was planning to meet the guy who I’d been talking to via email and phone calls for two months.

One day in late 2005, I realized I was moving to DC to start graduate school. I didn’t know anyone in the area and decided on a whim to join some social networking sites to meet new people. One such site was Match.com where I uploaded a profile picture for their free trial (I wasn’t gonna pay for it!). I wasn’t looking for a relationship, but more just a friend or two in the area. I wasn’t expecting much but then I found Dan’s profile. At the time, he was attending a university in DC and he looked “nice” so I emailed him.

I didn’t receive a response for weeks so I was very surprised to open my email inbox to see a message from this Dan dude. We exchanged emails and started becoming friends. Apparently, he joined Match.com during a drunken party and his friend signed him up and created his profile (nice job!). When he saw that he received a message from me, he thought I looked cute (*blush*) and paid the monthly fee to access the message.

We spoke everyday for two months. I was giddy – the type of giddy where you stay up until 4 am every night talking to someone who you just connect with on a very deep level. At this time, I was going to my practicum everyday at 7 am and was running on 3-4 hours of sleep. I didn’t care though – I was definitely smitten‘

Since I knew I was moving to DC (my choice before I met Dan), I used that as an excuse to drive to DC to “look at apartments” aka, meet Dan in person. I convinced my friend at the time to go with me and I was a nervous wreck. We stayed at a hotel nearby and that night, we planned to go out for St. Patrick’s Day. Dan came to pick us up and we finally met in the lobby. Gosh, I was hoping and praying for sparks; I mean, at that point, I had spent hours on end talking to him! I was at peace knowing that if it didn’t work out, we would still be friends.

When we first saw each other… there were definitely sparks. That night, he kissed me for the first time and it was awesome (yes, I’m being cheesy). The next day, we made it “official” and haven’t looked back. We were long distance for 4 months until I moved to DC in August of 2006. It’s now March 18, 2010 and I’ve never been happier.

Us during our first weekend:

Us now:

What if…

- I never decided to join Match.com?

- Dan never decided to join Match.com?

- He never responded to my message?

- I never responded to his?

There were so many small mistakes we could have made to somehow miss each other but we didn’t. It was meant to be. I honest to goodness think that we would have met in some way even if we never logged onto Match.com

Happy four year’s babe! Now onto number five…

xo,

Julie