The Social Experiment of 2017 and Dating Hell

White table clothes might still give me PTSD lol

January 1, 2022, I embarked on my own personal year of yes, which subsequently led to a crazy mess of a year of dating. Let me explain. At the end of 2016, I read Shonda Rhimes' “Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person” and decided that I would make 2017 a year of yes. This personal social experiment meant I would say yes to every opportunity presented to me, no matter how much it scared me. At this point in my life, I felt as if I was in a bit of a rut due to my fear of the unknown and figured this would help me get out of what felt like a late-twenties crisis. For the most part, it actually worked. This was the year that I fell in love with the gym because I said yes to a coworker's invite to a gym open house. This was also the year of great growth in my career as I said yes to many work opportunities that got me recognized and eventually recommended for a promotion and raise. I had so many memorable moments and learning experiences that were life-changing. 2017 was such a pivotal year in personal growth for me.

However, 2017 was also a year of dating hell. So, remember when I said I would say yes to every opportunity presented to me in 2017? Yeah, I also applied the social experiment to my dating life. Much like other aspects of my life, I was definitely in a dating rut. At the time, I was five years removed from my relationship with my ex-husband and seemed to pretty much date the same variation of my ex over and over. Therefore, I decided that any guy I matched with on Tinder (I know) who asked me on a date, I would say yes to (I know). In hindsight, this was really dumb, and I partially blame the quality of the dates on me using this platform. However, in the moment, it seemed like a good idea. Like I said, I seemed to date the same type of guy over and over, and I was open to some change. In hindsight, was Tinder the right platform for this? Probably not, but 27-year-old me was not paying for a dating site, and Tinder was my thing at the time.

I’m sure you can imagine how this went. Some were really nice first dates that led to me meeting some decent guys, some of whom I am still friends with to this day. However, the majority of the dates I went on were a complete disaster. Like, bad to the point that I almost stopped dating completely because I lost hope in the male species. However, just before I threw in the towel, I met the man who has made the last seven years pretty amazing.

Therefore, in celebration of our seventh year, I will be doing a series on this blog. I will share the stories of the dates and some of the relationships (if they can be called that) that led to me meeting him. I’m praying that I don’t get sued, and I hope none of these men contact me because I personally dislike them. However, as I believe every situation has a lesson, I hope to share the lessons I learned during this period because I learned quite a few. The main one was the power of saying yes to the unknown. So, buckle up and enjoy the wild ride of my 2017 dating life, which I will dub the Tinder Era dating series.

The Wong View