These *Success Stories* From Pinays Who Tried Dating Apps Will Make You Believe In Love
At some point in our lives, we've all probably thought about where (and how) we'll meet "The One." It could be as simple as going to the same school, being teammates at work, or even bumping into each other in a random cafe. Let's be real: After watching tons of rom-coms, you can't help but let your imagination run wild and have your standards set pretty high, lol. But have you ever wondered what it's like to find love online? We asked four Pinays from our Cosmo Community to share their experiences with dating apps and how their relationship with their partner became a *success story*.
Sarah (29) and Anton (33)
Dating for seven years
"Fun fact: I had Tinder for only a day 'cause my friend told me to try it out but then I eventually deleted it 'cause I found it boring! All men were pretty basic, haha. Every guy fell into a category and medyo easy to predict. But after some time, I downloaded it again 'cause I was bored. That's when I met Anton. It was very random. My first impression of him was sobrang strong ng character. When we would talk, I really just saw him as a potential friend. Didn't imagine him being a potential partner—nothing romantic, really! He was very frank, sobrang straight up lang kausap.
When we met online, I was actually in a phase where I was trying to get over a guy I saw for a while. I talked to Anton about it and told him that there's this thing I didn't get about guys: They tell you they don't like the sweet stuff—but like it when girls are sweet. Anton, who has only been talking to me for maybe three days at the time, suddenly tells me, 'Okay, para ma-gets mo, why don't we do a social experiment? Let's be together (like boyfriend girlfriend) for two weeks to a month tops.' (Parang K-drama lang or high school love story!) Me, being spontaneous, I actually agreed to it!
But there were some gray areas. One of those was actually answering the question 'How did you meet?' or 'When did you meet?' and I wasn't fully comfortable then having to tell my family and friends that we met on Tinder. Introducing a complete stranger as my boyfriend was just out of the question. My parents were very, very strict. Ako yung tipong kailangan ligawan sa bahay.
Our very first meeting was awkward. Upon approaching him, I was actually ready for a beso, but he greeted me with a high five, haha! Since neither of us weren't really into each other romantically back then and didn't see anything serious with what we were agreeing to, there was no best foot forward kind of thing. It was very, very, chill. We just hung out for a while, and he even asked to take me home before 6:00 pm! I was so surprised.
I was catching feelings and I didn't want to get hopes up or be paasa.
Four days into the 'social experiment' (aka treating each other like boyfriend and girlfriend, being sweet, messaging each other, and being on the phone for hours on end talking about everything and anything) I knew already that it wasn't gonna end well and this was a bad idea. I told him I wanted to end the deal. (Obviously I was catching feelings and I didn't want to get hopes up or be paasa.) But he responded with, 'Can we extend?' We became official right after that and five years later, we're now happily living together."
Erika (26) and Migs (27)
Dating for almost five years
"We first matched on Tinder five years ago. My first impression of Migs was that he was very eager to date but very shy. He loved talking about his own interests but he really wouldn't do so in detail until you shared a lot of your own interests with him. I also thought he was shorter and skinnier than he really was because he used old pics, but was really surprised to find out that he was twice my size IRL! I was very physically intimidated by him but he quickly made me feel safe and protected. His first impression of me was, 'Manic pero cool and parang down to Earth kahit medyo crazy' which I thought was totally accurate naman, haha. He also liked that I had pictures with my family on my Tinder account, because he liked someone who was close to their family. I totally forgot I had photos of them there!
The odds were against us from the beginning.
Migs used to own a coffee business in college, and I started messaging him asking if I could have a taste sometime. Even though we were already talking on Tinder, he legitimately thought I was just asking to buy coffee from him instead of subtly giving him an opening to ask me out, haha! Eventually he got the gist, and we didn't stop talking until the next day, which would be our first date. We met up at Ramen Nagi in UP Town Center during my lunch break. I was a college senior then and he graduated two years ago. I was very shocked to discover that unlike me, he was really on Tinder to look for a long term relationship, whereas I really just wanted to date around and have fun. On the first date pa lang, he already told his parents about me and would later go on to tell me that he kickstarted his bakery because he was serious about building a future for the both of us. Yup, hindi pa kami official pero ganun na yung usapan!
The odds were against us from the beginning, I think. Even though our parents approved of each other, we couldn't be any more different! He was shy and kept a very small, introverted circle of friends. Food, coffee, and crossfit were his passions. I knew nothing about them but came to know a thing or two very quickly once he began to open up to me. I was a loud, extroverted junior jock who was on the tail end of my radio journey. I partied hard and had intimidating, but sweet friends. Migs was never much of a reader, but I was already working on getting published and aspired towards a career in writing. Naturally, I was a bit worried that we'd be too different to get along. But because we were so different, we never ran out of things to talk about with each other. We constantly discussed the ins and outs of our chosen hobbies. We got along so well that within three weeks, he asked me to be his girlfriend and we started talking about future plans to get married as early as three months later.
After starting jiu-jitsu, going to Korea and Taiwan together, and even getting VIP seats to the TWICE Manila concert, all our differences only meant we eventually ended up getting into new interests together! Because of the pandemic, our relationship is now limited to daily video calls watching anime and documentaries, but I long for the day we can go on new adventures safely together again. Hopefully this can come true before our fifth anniversary in July!"
Coleen (24) and Raph (27)
Dating for more than two years
"My partner and I met through Bumble, back when it wasn't so popular yet. The app requires the woman to ~make the first move~ so I was the one who messaged first. I remember his bio was just emojis of things that he likes doing and my intro message was me trying to guess what the emojis meant, LOL. For some reason, I was really curious if I got them right and that's how our convo started.
Everything happened within a year. It was kinda fast but I guess we just made it work.
The talking stage was great! We moved from me guessing the emojis on his bio to him actually asking if I was game to go hiking or do some outdoor activities because I got those correctly. Eventually, we transferred our convo to Viber. For our first official in person date, we watched Sa Wakas The Musical. It was my first time to have someone actually ask me to watch a musical with them. I was really intrigued 'cause it seemed so classy, haha! Raph arrived a little earlier than I did because he was supposed to get us our tickets. Unfortunately, he didn't expect the show to only accept cash! It was so funny because when I got to Circuit Makati, I saw him and he was literally counting coins from his backpack. He even turned it upside down just in case there were some coins left inside. He was really sweating and was stressing over the fact that we wouldn't have seats anymore! Luckily, we still ended up with good seats so he pretty much stressed out over nothing, haha. For me, it was a funny and memorable first meet up. After a few more months, he asked us to be exclusive and 'in a relationship.' Everything happened within a year. It was kinda fast but I guess we just made it work."
Aya (23) and Hobi (23)
Dating for almost one year
"I've been using dating apps since college and I don't see anything wrong with it as long as you know your limitations and you do not catfish. Social media helps us communicate with each other. You can even find love no matter where you are. I matched with Hobi around last week of February in 2020 through Bumble. My first impression was that he looked so serious and it would be hard to break the ice. I just assumed because of the pics he used. Hobi, on the other hand, thought I was going to be mataray, haha!
Finding love during this pandemic was difficult, but worth it.
Pretty soon we followed each other on Instagram and he slid into my DMs. Throughout our talking stage, he was the one who made the move to pursue the relationship. We would talk on Messenger and eventually we started video chatting. We were supposed to meet during the first week of March but he said he needed to cancel because of schoolwork. Then, ECQ happened. When the lockdowns eased, we went on dates whenever possible and made sure that we were safe.
It took us two to three months before we became official. He surprised me at home last June. I was working when he texted me. He said that he was just going to do something then minutes later, he called and said he was outside of our house. It felt so surreal and sweet! It was very memorable. Finding love during this pandemic was difficult, but worth it."
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Answers have been edited for clarity.
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Source: Cosmo PH
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