Here's How We Met
Jourdan
Hafen
and
Daniel
Quinn
On “Millennial” Dating
Pundits claim that dating is one of the many things Millennials have “killed.” While Jourdan and I are not digital natives and therefore not Millennials (after all, we came out of the womb with 56k modems in hand, not iPads), it’s true that the Millennial generation ruined dating.
No longer do anxious single people have to haunt local bars for the possibility of making awkward conversation with strangers. Instead, we now enjoy an Ikea-like smörgåsbord of human options, which has transformed our desperation for human contact into a fear of responding too quickly to texts.
Digital love has made us fickle, picky, and impatient. But maybe that is a good thing? Perhaps in a thousand years we will look back on this age from our bodiless space prisons and agree. Who are we to judge?
Always Right Swipe
All this to say, I first met Jourdan on Tinder, after madly right-swiping through all the local matches in my area. I remember it distinctly: my karaoke wife Jackie Gonzalez and I were reading old issues of Cosmo in her Davis Square apartment, then this screaming face appeared:
Naturally I could not resist.
Jourdan and I corresponded by text sporadically for about a year. I asked her out exactly three times and she said no. The conversation died out and we dated other people.
Jourdan
i believe that love is like low grade radiation. it will eventually kill you
Jan 12, 2014, 4:13 PM
but not before it gives you open sores and hair loss
Jan 12, 2014, 4:13 PM
yes, yes exactly
Jan 12, 2014, 4:13 PM
Jourdan
on first dates i always propose skydiving
Feb 13, 2014, 1:13 PM
that's wonderful, albeit a somewhat pricey choice
Feb 13, 2014, 1:14 PM
unfortunately yes, the alternative is just hand-to-hand combat
Feb 13, 2014, 1:15 PM
i'm guessing you don't go on a lot of second dates
Feb 13, 2014, 1:15 PM
there are a lot of "accidents"
Feb 13, 2014, 1:16 PM
Jourdan
i could be a very intelligent otter for all we know, or vice versa
April 7, 2014, 4:21 PM
what if we both are?
April 7, 2014, 4:21 PM
speechless.
April 7, 2014, 4:22 PM
tinder would make a movie about us.
who would play us?
April 7, 2014, 4:22 PM
liam neeson for me obviously
April 7, 2014, 4:23 PM
hmm i want scarlett johansson
gross age gap tho
April 7, 2014, 4:24 PM
it'll work
April 7, 2014, 4:24 PM
Jourdan
i wonder if i am still capable of writing with my hands. i think all the texting has turned my hands into one evolutionarily superior iThumb
July 1, 2014, 6:31 PM
science will study you
our children will learn about you in school
and their children, and their children's children
July 1, 2014, 6:31 PM
Jourdan
you are a good pocket friend, very versatile that you run on both apple and android platforms. I will make sure to back you up
Aug 8, 2014, 4:10 PM
that's the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me
Aug 8, 2014, 4:11 PM
i have very good programming
Aug 8, 2014, 4:12 PM
it's almost scary
Aug 8, 2014, 4:13 PM
but only almost
Aug 8, 2014, 4:13 PM
Jourdan
the only thing to take pictures of in florida is mickey mouse
Nov 28, 2014, 9:01 PM
and walmarts
and baptist churches
or baptist churches in walmarts
Nov 28, 2014, 9:01 PM
and ok I don't know, i've only been to disney world
Nov 28, 2014, 9:15 PM
or baptist churches in walmarts in disney world
Nov 28, 2014, 9:16 PM
oh i ate lunch there
to escape the alligators
Nov 28, 2014, 9:17 PM
i once worked there
we lived in little hobbit portables under the desert, we disney elves
Nov 28, 2014, 9:18 PM
do you still have pointy shoes?
Nov 28, 2014, 10:00 PM
no they confiscated them along with our joy when we left
Nov 28, 2014, 10:01 PM
Jourdan
so i think facebook just suggested that we become friends. honestly i'm slightly creeped out by that.
Dec 17, 2014, 11:22 PM
the AI already know our destiny
Dec 17, 2014, 11:23 PM
there's nothing to do but surrender, i suppose.
but really is your last name Quinn?
Dec 17, 2014, 11:25 PM
yes, my last name is legally Quinn.
it can't be so bad to surrender to the AI, now can it? they already do most of the work for us, except laundry
which disappoints me
Dec 17, 2014, 11:26 PM
It wasn’t until December 2014 that Facebook suggested me as a friend on her profile, and through the magic of data brokerage we decided to physically meet at Algiers in Harvard Square.
And the rest—well, you know about.
Photos by Rachel Rueckert
