The dating game really changed in 2020, not that dating was ever really easy. With social norms on an ever changing basis, in addition to the ever changing obstacles of life, most would be at least a little hesitant to put themselves out there. Just one more shade of vulnerable to be at a time like this. So with distancing as the new expectation it seemed like the perfect time, if ever, to give dating apps a try. Welcome to Hinge! If you don't already know, most dating apps will let you buy memberships at different lengths. Hinge offers a 1 month, a 3 month and a 6 month. The longer the commitment the cheaper the monthly price. I like to save money, so I thought I was being smart signing up for the 3 month membership. Ultimately I expected that was how long I would let Hinge hold my interest before giving up on it entirely. Dating apps seemed too cliché to actually bring about anything worth while, or so I thought. So how did my 3 months go you wonder? Well as you already know, I got the guy ;) However I used less than 4 weeks of my 3 month membership so if you look at it that way then I didn't exactly get my moneys worth. >D Ryan was the first date I went on after joining the app. I went on a couple of dates with some other Hinge matches but by my third date with Ryan I decided I didn't want to talk to anyone else. Most of our dates involved taking our dogs to the park so we quickly bonded over our love of animals and the outdoors. Even if restaurants and movie theaters hadn't been all but shut down, I still think we would have planned all of our dates for the park. We would bring food and sit at the picnic tables or on a blanket in the grass. We would talk the whole time, sometimes for hours, until the sun was down and on one occasion the park was closing and we were asked to leave. To be clear, we were asked to leave, not kicked out. Ryan will say otherwise but its not true. Anyway. That was and still is my favorite thing about Ryan. Our communication. We can talk about anything and we are very like minded but its also how we talk to each other. He makes me feel like I can speak more openly and honestly than I ever have. I can somehow articulate my words and emotions better when I am with him. I'm not sure how he would have taught me this but I can definitely say it is a trait I have gained by knowing him. It seems silly to tell people we met on a dating app because it doesn't explain just how special our connection is. I feel like we were fated to meet and through a series of (in my opinion) unfortunate events, this was just the way we could be brought together at the right time. This might sound a little romanticized and while I do read a lot of fictional love stories I also believe this to be true. Ryan might be able to put it in more straight forward terms but I guess we balance each other in that way. While I could go on, I know that this is just the beginning for us and we have so much to look forward to together. Thank you for reading the short version of our sappy love story.