One of the most frequent questions asked by friends, family members, and strangers is how I met my girlfriend. I of course have received permission from my love to use this as a blog post and tell off all of the women just begging on their knees to be with me (sarcasm, if it’s hard to tell).
Whenever I start with how I met my girlfriend, the conversation usually goes something like this:
- “So how’d you meet?”
- “We actually met studying abroad in Ireland.”
- “So she’s Irish?”
- “Not really..”
- “So she must’ve been on your program at Purdue.”
- “Not really..”
It seems to me the best way to explain is to add all of the necessary details into the first line of dialogue such as this: “I met my girlfriend in Ireland, and no, she’s not Irish, she’s American like myself, and no, she didn’t attend Purdue.” It gets all of the basic questions out of the atmosphere and we can focus onto more interesting questions, more so about me.
When I went to Ireland, I wasn’t looking for love in particular in all honesty. I did have my eyes on a few Irish women I was talking to before I even got to Dublin, both of which I went on dates with (one unofficially, one officially). The official date actually went very well, but this post isn’t focused on her, it’s focused on my girlfriend. I ultimately decided to not to a second date with the Irish woman, simply because I felt a relationship with another American (and someone who I would be closer to in the long run) would be a much smarter option.
The first night we met was the 11th of January, when I sent a large group-text to my apartment complex saying “let’s drink on the roof!”. It went something like that, at the very least. I just know I sent the text. Eileen (my girlfriend, if I’ve left the name out until now) was one of the first people there in her pajamas and we eventually talked a little (but it was a big group, so that proved fairly difficult) and I put her contact down in my phone. For the longest of time, she sat in my phone contacts as “Eileen (rooftop)”.
A couple of days later, I was invited by Eileen to join her and her roommates as they explored the city and got dinner. I probably should’ve noted that I was the only +1 in that group, and the rest of her roommates were girls. After dinner, one of my friends I made (who, by the end of the trip, all three of us were extremely good friends) invited us to a dive bar-restaurant.
Our first unofficial date was two years ago to this day, simply because we weren’t going out with the concept of a date. It was like we were best friends, and that’s what I saw her as for at least the first two weeks. This is probably the peak of that instance where boys can be completely blind to signals that a girl likes you. It didn’t pay to never have a girlfriend, kiss, or romantic hand-holding.
We first started dating after I asked her out on the 26th of that month, 2022. We went out to Italian (and struggled very much so to get the waiter to grab the check). She then broke up with me after a week because it was too soon, and looking back, I agree. I think I was like “I’m happy, she’s happy, it makes sense.” However, we continued to act the same way towards each other for three and a half months in Ireland.
Let me get two things straight that she might argue against:
- I said “I love you” first, BUT
- She liked me romantically first
It’s key to know who was tied to which. I thought of her as a best friend, all the meanwhile she liked me. I came around eventually, but she tells me how jealous she was about the one date I went on in Ireland. Now, as of writing, we’ve been together for just short of 2 years and it doesn’t look like it will slow down any time soon. Good communication and genuine love takes you very far.
To conclude: To Eileen, I love you more than anything. You are the best <3
Overall Feelings: Great