It started with Twitter. Quite possibly the most unlikely place I would have ever suspected my journey to start. I could try and hide that, and say it started because of friendship, but that would only be half the truth. Without Twitter, that friendship never would have come to be.
I once told a friend that though I had decided not to go the route of dating sites anymore, I had a feeling in my gut that the man I was meant to marry would somehow be met through the internet. I was positive of it.
Way back last May, very shortly after my birthday, I logged on to Twitter to find a new follower. Like any normal twit-person, I immediately went off to stalk his profile. His username stated he was a Jedi, his description pointed out he was a geek, and his picture indicated he was a Christian (Bible verses, etc). Immediately impressed by this information, I followed him back and sent him a tweet.
Within a day of tweeting back and forth, we discovered that not only did we have a LOT in common, but that he actually lived only an hour away from me, in a town I was quite familiar with. We quickly became friends, texting and tweeting. He did have a fiancee, and for once, I put my brains in order and thought about how this might look to her. A strange girl, met online, who lives nearby and has a crapload in common with the man she is marrying. If I were in her shoes, I would be panicking. I would be terrified, and I would be worried that this girl intended to steal my man. While "Jedi" and I got along well, there was no attraction there. It was purely friendship. And, even if there was more, I am not in the business of stealing the heart of a man who belongs to someone else. So I did the only thing I could think of to give her reassurance -- I followed her on twitter and started tweeting with her. That simple gesture must of eased her mind, because we fast became friends as well.
Over the next couple of months, the three of us tweeted, texted and Facebook chatted a lot, and they kept asking when I would come to see them.
When July hit, I made a decision that I was going to start dating again. I had been over the last relationship for a while, and decided that the thing to keep my confidence going was to get a date. I had no intention of finding a relationship, but I set a goal that by the end of the summer, I was going to go on at least one date. Problem was, I didn't really know any guys, and I didn't know how to meet some. I live in a fairly small town, and there were not a lot of options around, especially concerning Christian men around my age.
In the midst of a flurry of twitter conversations with Jedi, the fiancee and one of their friends, we were discussing the possibility of me going down that night to visit when I joked at Jedi that he seemed to know a lot of men, so he should set me up on a date with one them. We joked around about that for a bit, before he suggested setting me up with his roommate. Curious, I asked some questions. How old was he? Was he a Christian? Was he a nerd? Jedi replied that he was 26, a Christian, had just finished Bible College, and was definitely a nerd.
After showing me a Facebook picture, I was sold. Jedi told me the roomie seemed interested, so I said he should add me to Facebook.
I wanted to go down to see them that night, but Jedi and the fiancee were working until 11pm and 9pm respectively, so I would be spending the time mainly with roomie, a couple other roommates, and a friend I had only tweeted with, which is quite nervewracking for a girl with extreme social anxiety.
So when the roommate added me to Facebook, after talking for a few minutes, and him saying I should come down, I was sold. I tweeted them that I would be there, and lots of Twit-squealing ensued.
I rushed home from work, told my parents I was headed to Kitchener for the night, and took off.
The journey there, my mind was spinning, This all was so unlike me. I rarely ever rushed off to see friends I actually KNEW in person thanks to my social anxiety, let alone people I hadn't actually met yet. Especially when the person I would be spending the next several hours with was someone I had barely talked to for five minutes. Not to mention the whole fact that this was a super-spontaneous trip that had literally been planned just before leaving work. I'm all for spontaneity, but I had never been one to actually do something THAT spontaneous.
I'd be lying if I said that I never thought about turning back. In fact, I almost turned back three or four times, the social anxiety threatening to overtake me. But, my determination that summer had been to overcome this issue, so I stuck to it.
I pulled into the mall parking lot near their apartment, where roomie and I decided to meet up, pulled out my phone and sent him a text.
Hey, I'm here.
I took a deep breath, and waited, nervously drumming my fingers on my car door.
