Kara, junior nursing major

The one where the guy made the date into a whole workout.

“I met this dude on Tinder, and him and I had talked for a few days,” she said. “Then we decided to hangout, and he said we could just walk around campus.”

Kara’s date then picked her up and brought her to his apartment at University Edge. They walked from Tri-Towers to the architecture building. 

“He was walking so fast, I literally told him he needed to slow down because I couldn’t keep up with him,” she said. “He was trying to talk to me the whole time, but I was out of breath.”

Her date then suggested they walk downtown, and he asked if she wanted to get Insomnia Cookies.

“We go in there and he’s like ‘Oh wait, I forgot my wallet,’ so I had to pay,” Kara said. “Then we walked all the way back to my dorm, and I said, ‘Goodbye,’ and went inside. I was literally sweating and my face was bright red.”

Isabelle, Sophomore Fashion Merchandising Major

The one where he knew a spot.

“I met this guy in high school who was a friend of a friend,” she said. “I didn’t really know him but I gave him my Snapchat.”

They then moved on to texting but had still never hung out yet. He asked her out for ice cream, but he kept pushing back the time to the point Isabelle said she thought he was delaying the date on purpose.

“We ended up not leaving until around 9 when it was already dark,” she said. “Everything was going pretty well, and I asked him where we were going to get ice cream. He said since it was already late, we should go somewhere else.”

Isabelle asked where they were going and her date said, “I know a spot.” This made Isabelle nervous, but she tried to reassure herself that he was a good guy.

“After driving for half an hour, we park on a random street in front of the woods,” she said. “I was very confused and officially scared, so I asked if this was the spot and he said, ‘No, we have to walk a little.”

Isabelle then sent her location to her friends, but she kept walking with him into the woods.

“We walked for about 10 minutes and eventually reached ‘the spot,’ which was a hill next to a landfill,” she said. “It was buggy, and it smelled, and we were so far from anyone.”

They sat there for a little while before he realized she was uncomfortable, and they left.

“All ended well, but I can safely say I will never walk into the woods on a first date again,” Isabelle said. “If I ever hear the words, ‘I know a spot,’ I’m running in the other direction.”

Cadie, senior sport administration major

“Laura and I were longtime friends,” Cadie said. “We both just got out of bad relationships and decided to give dating each other a try, since we were so synergistic.”

A snowstorm hit that day, and Cadie’s ride bailed on her. She got another ride and he drove her to Clarion, Pennsylvania. They got to Laura’s dorm and he wouldn’t leave.

“They hit it off [and] we all stayed in her dorm room because [the] weather got so much worse,” Cadie said. “They proceed to screw in the other bed while I’m ‘asleep.’”

Erin, junior bio pre-med major

The one where it lasted until college.

“During my freshman year of high school, this cute guy in my science class had asked me out to the movies, and I was really excited,” she said. “The day came, and his mom picked us up and dropped us off at the theater.”

They got there half an hour early, so he suggested they go to the arcade in the building. She said she didn’t want to play any games, but he bought a lot of tokens.

He offered the first game to her, but she refused, claiming she isn’t good at video games and didn’t want to embarrass herself on the first date.

“He could tell I was being stubborn about not playing so he gave the rest of the tokens, about $19 worth since he had only played one game, to a group of boys in the arcade,” she said.

Then they went to the concession stand, and he bought her a large popcorn, went inside the theater, which had the reclining seats, and sat down. 

“I was too nervous to press the wrong button and look stupid, so I didn’t,” she said. “I sat straight up for the entire movie. Also, I put the popcorn at my feet when we first sat down … I was also too nervous to reach down and grab my popcorn.”

They walked out of the theater — large popcorn in hand — and he threw it away. Erin said she felt bad he “wasted so much money” on her.

“I was so surprised when a few weeks later, he asked me out on a second date,” she said. “He eventually became my boyfriend and we dated for the rest of high school until we broke up after our first semester of college.”

Staff story: Kaitlyn Finchler (me), senior journalism major

The one where he mansplained my job to me.

I’ve gone on quite a few questionable dates. This story is the one my friends voted for me to share. 

I matched with this guy on Hinge who went to Ohio University, but he was from the Cleveland area. This was fall 2020, peak of COVID-19, so there wasn’t much to do.

He suggested we go hiking so we can be somewhat distanced, and I agreed. He asked me to drive up to Cleveland, so I assumed we’d be hiking there. When I got there, he texted me to park a block away so his parents wouldn’t see my car and ask questions.

So I walked from my car to his house, and we drove down to Cuyahoga Falls from Cleveland. So this man made me drive 45 minutes just to drive back somewhere that’s 20 minutes from where I lived.

We then started our hike, and we got to talking about interests, jobs, etc. At the time, I was the photo editor for The Kent Stater, and he told me he was a photojournalism major.

He then proceeded to “mansplain” the most basic concepts of photography to me and said, “Let me know if you need me to break it down more for you.”

After we were done hiking, we watched the sunset, and he asked if I wanted to get dinner. I agreed because the hike had made me a little hungry.

We drove around for about 25 minutes before he finally picked a place in this little plaza outside of Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

I get nervous on dates that involve food, so I waited for him to order before I decided. He only ordered mozzarella sticks. I got something small as well, and when the waitress asked if the check was together or separate, he immediately said “separate.”

We drove back to his place, and I immediately hopped in my car to tell my roommate everything. Long story short, it’s hit or miss to date someone in the same career field as you.

Kaitlyn Finchler is a campus editor. Contact her at [email protected].