The Dating Project: A Beginning and Some Ground Rules

Dudes. Dating is weird.

It’s like interviewing people for a super personal job. 

Sort of.

Writing about it in a place where anyone could look at it is also weird. But, alas, writing is how I think, and I’ve decided that I want to document my experiences.

Now, first things first, I fully intend to protect the identities of the innocent (and even the not so innocent). See, the thing is, if your name is like my name, even cursory Googling will get you to one of my blogs.  Good thing, though, is if a guy would object to dating the kind of person who would turn the whole thing into a project, and is also the sort of guy to do his homework, he knows that I’m not for him. And with that knowledge, we both win!

My other starting ground rule is that I’m going to allow some time to pass between what has happened and when I post about it. The last thing I want is to feel like someone has enough accurate data points to figure out just where I’ve been and with whom. I don’t think anyone really cares, but it feels gross to just have that info just hanging out there.

I’m going to go ahead and admit to something that is probably a problem. My main vice is curiosity. I stay in all sorts of places too long because I’m curious about them. I talk to people too long due to curiosity. Curiosity is the birthplace of all of my worst ideas…but, also, my good ones. 

Dating is almost like consensual eavesdropping. In that way, it is very alluring to the curious.

You get invited into a sliver of someone’s life, and you can take it all in and turn it into short stories…if that’s your thing.

If you know anything at all about me, you know that working on projects and setting goals are central to the way that I see myself. Here, the project is to document these dates, and more importantly, what I learn from them. The goals are manifold. I tend to be someone who sort of falls into relationships, a serial monogamist, if you will. Here, I’m aiming to push against that habit a bit. I’m also trying to take the time to really think about what’s important to me and why, what I like and why, and what I’m looking for and why.

I might as well get a project out of it, no?

Leave a Reply