Remember those good old days when you had to make the actual effort of leaving the comfortable confines of your home in order to meet other people and find potential partners for dating? For a while now, online dating apps have been doing the job for us; bringing in prospective candidates using their complex algorithms and data sequencing (or whatever it is that software does), and putting forth varied options to choose from on our proverbial plates.
However, that hasn’t been working out too well for the majority of us, has it? Online profiles are often misleading; there’s usually a creep lurking behind that nerdy but cute guy who loves the same Star Wars character as you do. Moreover, (seemingly) being compatible and having a good rapport online may not necessarily transcend across the barriers of the virtual world into the real world. Chances are that the two of you will be sickeningly awkward around each other when you do decide to meet each other IRL, and we don’t want that to be happening, do we?
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I think it’s time we went back to the ways of our forefathers and resumed meeting people in real life, and not through the slick screens of our computers or smartphones. Some things are best done offline, and dating happens to be one of them. Yes, you will have to go that extra mile (quite literally) to find interesting people, but the end results are guaranteed to be positive (almost always). So it’s only fair for you to learn how to meet someone to date IRL, right?
Here are 15 tips on how to meet someone for dating in the real world:
1. Go for daily walks
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You get to kill two birds with one stone: walking daily is excellent for maintaining good health and metabolism; and it provides you with ample opportunities to meet loads of new people. Go to a nearby park and let yourself loose; you’ll soon come across loads of people willing to strike up a conversation with you or just accompany you in your run. Who knows, you might just end up finding someone really cute and hitting things off with them!
2. Museums
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Museums are a great and rather inexpensive way of spending some quality recreational time. Admire the different artifacts, learn about the intricacies of your culture, and try to soak in the glorious history bustling with life around you. You’ll surely come across people who’d be more than willing to have an intellectually stimulating conversation with you, and would be willing to lend their ears to your opinions.
3. Volunteer
Not only do you get to do your part in giving back to the society and making a difference, you also get to meet like-minded people who might have the same outlook as yours and are willing to bring change in the society for the better. You could most definitely ask them out for coffee and discuss the shortcomings of society and exchange tips on how to make it better (along with exchanging phone numbers!).
4. Attend social gatherings that your friends invite you to
I know how staying in bed in your sweats is the far kinder alternative to getting appropriately dressed and smiling and talking (or at least making the effort to do so) all evening, but sometimes these gatherings are perfect for stumbling across new and hopefully interesting people. That cute guy you’ve been eyeing is probably your best friend’s cousin’s younger brother, and it becomes a tad easier to break the ice before a conversation with someone when you know people in common. So, get up and get rid of your three-day-old pajamas and go socialize!
5. Spend some alone time outside the confines of your room
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Chill by yourself at your favorite bar or café or bookshop or wherever it is you feel comfortable at. Most people feel intimidated to approach a large group of people sitting and having the time of their lives, but you’ll be surprised to see how many strangers might be interested to strike up a conversation with you; and that is possible only when you are all alone. It gives them easier access to get into your space without coming off as too intrusive. Of course, a good number of them might just be creeps and closeted axe murderers, but you’ve got to take that chance and let yourself open up; and you might just meet someone worth taking that leap of faith for.
6. Agree to go on blind dates
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Our friends sometimes know us inside out, better than we think we know ourselves. If they think they’ve found the perfect match for you and seek your approval to set you up with said perfect match, it would be wise to agree. Granted, there’s a huge possibility of the blind date going horribly wrong, but like everything else in life, you will never truly find out for sure unless you go ahead and give it a shot.
7. Attend events you really want to
You might be dying to attend that lecture by your favorite author, or a jazz concert or a farmer’s market sale… well, go out there and do all those things your heart wants to! You get to be surrounded by people who will be there for the exact reason as you are, and nothing provides a better opportunity for meeting people you could date than going out and doing the things you love and enjoy.
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8. Join a class
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It could be yoga or learning a foreign language or even a cooking class. We’re never too old to learn something new; it helps our minds to grow as it gains more and more knowledge. Joining a class means you will be surrounded by people who are there with similar goals; they are just as eager to learn as you are. This will be just like school, and like school, you will be meeting and interacting with loads of different people. Keep an eye out for that broody looking individual who might end up going on a lunch date with you in no time.
9. Avail public transportation
You will be doing your bit to reduce environmental pollution and coming across people from all walks of life. If the Instagram account @HotGuysReadingnyc is anything to go by, you are sure to find some potential dating partners on that crowded subway ride to work.
10. Make an effort to get to know people
You won’t know if you and someone else truly click unless you make an effort to talk to them. One of the advantages of meeting people in real life as opposed to dating apps is that there is some amount of definite truth to what they say and do. So, you will be encountering this person in all their human glory rather than only aspects of himself/herself that the person chooses to highlight. Keep your observation skills sharp and try to decipher the kind of person they may be.
11. Go to places where you’re a regular
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It could be a bookstore that you visit frequently or a bar you hang out at every weekend. When you frequently visit a place, the chances of meeting someone else who might be visiting that place often become higher. One of you is bound to notice the other, and soon enough, you’ll be fawning over how perfect the pancakes at the diner are, or how mean one of the bartenders is.
12. Attend reunions organized by your school or university
We all know how the very point of reunions is to show off how happy and contented we are with our present lives, even if that entails an entire evening of pretending to demonstrate how completely not messed up everything in your life is. But sometimes, we come across those lost souls swimming in the same fish bowl as us with whom we instantly reconnect, as if we’d said goodbye after school just yesterday.
13. Weddings
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This is an extremely clichéd one, I know. But weddings are the ideal places to look for someone you could have some fun with. The atmosphere is a festive one, everyone is in the mood for celebration, and there are always a good number of singletons looking for someone they could share the festivities with. The universe works in funny ways and a casual wedding date could ripen up to something more for all you know.
14. Spend time after work with colleagues
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No, you don’t have to date your co-worker because it’s weird and could end up messing both your work lives. But you could hang out with them during the hours after work and be introduced to their friends from different companies who, as it turns out, have the same interests as you do!
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15. Put yourself out there
You have to be willing to take chances in order to find someone worth spending time with. Exude the warmth and passion that you’ve been bottling up within you while scouring through the interwebs looking for someone you could open up to. You don’t need an online persona in order to attract people. Be yourself and put yourself out there, and see the opportunities that come your way.
Dating brings a nice change to your otherwise bleak life; sometimes it’s pleasant to have someone sit next to you and share a pizza with you instead of having to text the person of your dreams with emojis being the only medium you can truly express yourself. Now that you know how to meet someone IRL for dating, keep your phone aside for a bit and make an attempt to see the world through your own eyes instead of a 5-inch screen, why don’t you?
Featured image source: Google, copyright-free image under Creative Commons License
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