Jacob and Ariana met at Starbucks at 2 p.m. on Saturday to grab coffee and get to know each other.
Ariana: My friend signed me up for Love Connection actually.
Jacob: I’m a fourth-year, and I figured why not try it out and have an experience that I hoped would be fun and interesting.
Ariana: I haven’t been on a blind date before. I didn’t really approach this as a date, I just figured it was an opportunity to meet someone new at U.Va. who evidently Love Connection thought I had similarities with and figured I might as well meet them.
Jacob: I can cross it off the list now. I assumed they would match me up with someone I could have a conversation with, but that was pretty much my only expectation. I wasn’t sure who I was supposed to meet because there were two people that had striped shirts, but then Ariana came up to me and asked if my name started with a J and then I asked if hers started with an A, so we knew.
Ariana: When we met, we just said hi and laughed a little bit, got a drink at Starbucks, and walked outside to his Lawn room which started a great conversation about mutual friends we had. He actually lives on the Lawn a few doors down from the kid who signed me up for this.
Jacob: Initially, I thought she was a nice person. We kind of just chatted and then we realized we knew a lot of the same people, and it helped me get a sense of who she was.
Ariana: I thought it was cool he signed up for this and was putting himself out there. He was really easy-going with the process. He wasn’t acting weird or anything. It was just like meeting up with a friend.
Jacob: We talked about the kind of things we did at U.Va. and our love for our school. That’s the main thing we had in common — being very passionate in what we were involved in. We’re in different parts of the University, but still had the same passion for Grounds.
Ariana: For things we have in common, definitely mutual friends. Definitely a love for U.Va. sports. We both like sports. We’re both from out of town.
Jacob: The conversation was pretty balanced in regards to what we were talking about.
Ariana: The Honor Amendment just came out, and he has very funny opinions about it based on a mutual friend, so we started talking about it, and he was like sort of against it and was just talking a lot about that. Ironically, I’m on the Honor Committee, so it was super awkward but in a funny way for him to rag on Honor, which most people do. He knew in the beginning I was on Honor, but I don’t think he realized I was on exec.
Jacob: Immediately when she said she was on Honor, I was thinking, “Oh, I guess we can’t talk about the 55 percent amendment,” but it was cool she was open about it. I was intrigued with the Honor policy. Yeah, I knew Ariana was on Honor but not on exec, so I talked about that some.
Ariana: So in Sustained Dialogue, they’ll pair you with someone else in the group and in your own time, you all go and grab coffee. It felt very much like that, just having a chance to get to know someone at U.Va. It’s cool because it’s someone I would have never met otherwise. So, I would definitely be down to hang out as friends again. Especially if I’m passing the Lawn, I’ll stop and say hello. I’m not really looking for a relationship right now, so I didn’t approach the situation like that.
Jacob: It was definitely more of a friend vibe. I’m not the type of person that when I first meet someone I go in that regard. We had a really good and friendly conversation, though. I could see myself hanging out with her again. I had to meet up with a friend to study, so we exchanged contacts and parted our ways.
Ariana: As a hangout, getting to know someone, it was definitely a 10. As an activity on a Saturday getting coffee, it was awesome. Great conversation. I’m definitely glad I did it.
Jacob: I would rate the date an 8!
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