The Zoom Dates Did It

Whitney joined our site seeking human connection more than romantic love, per se. “I was bored, and I just wanted someone to talk to,” she admits. “It was not my first experience with a dating site.” So she composed a profile with the clever username “WhitTheReal.”

“It was not my first experience, either,” says Michael, the man she met through her membership here. Michael’s motivation was his hope that online dating would be more effective than traditional methods of finding love. “I didn’t have success in real life,” he concedes. “But I had some hope that things would work out [here].” So he put up a profile with the handle “Michaeldee91.”

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“I was NOT confident at all,” Whitney says of her degree of optimism that we could help her find a life partner. “All my past endeavors had failed.”

Nonetheless, Michael may have been one of the first people to notice the appearance of Whitney’s profile on our site. As Whitney puts it, “I was hours old” as a member when his message popped up. “Same as her!” exclaims Michael.

Michael notes that what led him to reach out to Whitney were “our common interests, and the fact that she was really, really pretty!” Something about him seized her interest immediately. “Michael reached out to me with a cute, unique message,” recalls Whitney. “It caught my attention and I felt this vibe that we would connect.”

Whitney says that based on Michael’s promising profile, she could see that “he has a great head on his shoulders, and he’s a very handsome guy!”

With quite a gap separating their cities of residence, the pair began having Zoom dates to become better acquainted. “We deleted our profiles before we met in person,” Whitney recalls. She says she knew she was ready to move ahead and meet “when I realized that I was falling for him, and wanted to start a future with him.” Michael says he wanted to get together IRL, too. “I saw something could come out of it and wanted to take the first step,” he tells us.

With that in mind, Whitney purchased a plane ticket. “I flew across the country to spend a fun weekend with him,” she reveals. Michael greeted her with a romantic welcome. “I put together a walkway of candles and flowers, and I gave her a necklace with one of our favorite songs,” he says.

Whitney remembers what she was feeling in the moment she saw her man in person for the first time. “Just pure joy and excitement,” she gushes. “The first instinct was to hug him!” Michael was a little overwhelmed at Whitney’s appearance. “I just thought, ‘She’s so pretty I can’t even look her in the eyes,’” he laughs now. But her appeal went far more than skin deep. Michael exclaims, “I already knew she was caring, but it was incredible how much we found out that we have in common!”

Their chemistry didn’t miss a beat after going from virtual to vividly real. Michael was surprised at “how comfortable I felt, since it was the first time meeting face to face.” His girlfriend nods. “It was surprising that it felt so normal after only Zooming or video chatting for so many months,” muses Whitney. “But when we met in person for our first in-person date, I already knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.” She is eager to extol his virtues as a partner, saying, “I appreciate his undying support, love and kindness.”

Of course, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for these two. “The distance has been the biggest obstacle,” Whitney acknowledges. “We live on opposite ends of the country,” Michael reminds us. “Being so far away is really hard, but our support is what keeps us strong.”

That said, now that they’re in a relationship Whitney is feeling something she wasn’t sure she ever would, romantically: fulfillment. “He is everything that I could ever want, and everything I didn’t know I needed,” she observes. Michael would definitely say that Whitney is just the person he was hoping to find online, declaring, “[She was] very similar – to a T! Identical!”

Here are the words of encouragement the couple would like to pass on to others whose search for love has not yet reached a happy conclusion. “Keep an open mind,” recommends Whitney. “For me, it happened when I wasn’t really even looking... One thing that helped a lot is that we texted and talked a lot before really showing or sending photos or videos. That way we could get to know each other without the distraction of physical appearance.”

Michael tells singles it’s important to just be yourself, adding, “Be open. Make time for each other, and be honest.”

Whitney has a clear memory of where she was when she realized this relationship was going to be it for her. “It was when I couldn’t stop thinking about him, and I realized that he’s everything I always wanted and never had in a man,” she says. For Michael that moment came “when she wanted to tell me something but didn’t want to scare me; she wanted to tell me she loves me, but she didn’t have the courage to say so yet.”

These two are over the moon at the prospect of their future together. “I never thought I would find this type of love, and now that I have it, I feel complete and hopeful for the future,” Whitney says. Michael notes, “I feel happier just to know that I always have her there, and she truly cares for me!”

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