by Amanda M.

Created on: January 19, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

I was going to give up. I swore to myself as I sat down at the computer that today was the day I was going to delete my profile and resign myself to being alone. I didn't really believe in the validity of meeting someone through the Internet anyway and had been skeptical from the start. I was so tired of tweaking my profile just to attract a man. Picture or no picture? Is my humor more Three Stooges or intellectual? Summing myself up in three paragraphs or less struck me as more than slightly demeaning. So I was done.

Of course banishing myself from Internet dating wouldn't erase the memories of the bad dates: the men who were much older than they claimed, the ones who were definitely not looking for anything beyond a bed buddy and the guy who not only ordered my coffee but waited until I paid for both of us and then claimed the change. Then there was the man I had been dating in a non-exclusive way for the past three months. Sure, we got along great, had a lot of fun together but there were a lot of things I didn't like about him (and he about me) and it just wasn't going anywhere. No, none of that would be erased with my profile but the hope and disappointment might be.

I decided to check my messages one last time. And there, strangely, serendipitously enough, was the introduction that would change my life forever. It wasn't anything extraordinary, just an email saying my profile looked interesting and he'd like to chat with me. Knowing how badly I felt about myself when guys didn't respond to my emails, I thought I'd at least write back to him before I gave up. I checked out his profile and he didn't seem that bad. We actually had a lot in common, though I'd seen that before. We exchanged a few emails in which he volunteered that he was about to give up on the online experience and told me the email he sent to me was going to be the last one he sent. Hmmm...

We instant messaged each other for days, for hours at a time. I couldn't put what I felt for him into any logical perspective. My hands shook in anticipation and my stomach fluttered every time I saw him pop up on my buddy list. I missed him, this man I had never even met. We finally managed to meet in person. A casual coffee date turned into a 15 hour date, we never stopped talking all night long. I drove the hour back to my home at 4am after being up for a day and half straight. It was an amazing first date and an even more amazing first kiss. It was like we had known each other for years.

From that day we were never apart more than 3 or 4 days at a time despite the hour's drive and opposite work schedules that lay between us. Sometimes he would get out of work at 10pm and drive the hour just to sleep beside me for the few hours before I had to go to work at 6am. I had never felt this connected to anyone before, never missed anyone so much, never felt my heart jump when I heard like it did when I heard his voice. We knew what we had was a once in a lifetime kind of special. Ten months later we were married. Despite anything I believe about it, I met my husband online.

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