Thursday, December 24, 2009

Online Dating in Canada: My Experience

A couple years ago I saw my once-solid marriage deteriorate into petty name-calling and arguing virtually overnight. There was still love present in the relationship, but it became clear that there was little else to justify us staying together. It was tough, as the long Toronto winter approached, and I finally decided that making friends would help with my depression and sadness surrounding a failed marriage. It was not supposed to turn out this way, but it did, and that feeling of being alone may be the most difficult aspect of the end of a long-term relationship.

At first, I consulted with friends in an effort to find blind dates. The problem with this approach is that I never knew what I was getting into. Everyone would say, “Oh, she’s great. You must meet her”, but when the time came, I would encounter someone who was worse for me than my ex-wife. This only aggravated the problem. Because I do not drink, going to clubs was not an option, and almost no one I know of has found a fulfilling relationship at the bar-scene anyway. My situation was dire as the prospect of a long winter with little to no companionship was eminent. As a last-ditch effort I did a web-search for “online dating Canada“. I am certainly glad I did.

At first, the sheer number of online dating websites was intimidating and confusing. Still, I was determined to see what this cyber-dating phenomenon was all about. Most of the sites I found had very few members or they cost over twenty dollars a month to join. Just when I was about to resign myself to being alone, I came across a free website that was loaded with friendly singles. There had to be a catch, but I couldn’t find it because there were absolutely no hidden fees. Had my search for online dating in Canada come to a happy-ending?

The answer to that question is yet to be determined, but I will say that within a week of joining KissCafe (http://www.kisscafe.com) I had made a friend named Tammy. Unlike with most websites geared towards online dating in Canada, KissCafe gave me a chance to email and video-chat with the ladies I found interesting for free. This allowed me to make an instant connection with Tammy, and we eventually met for some Chinese food and good conversation.

Online dating in Canada does not have to involve high-costs and stress. In fact, with KissCafe it is the complete opposite. Tammy and I never really had that spark that leads to intimacy, but I am happy to say that we are still friends, and her company helped me greatly during that first winter alone in quite some time. The prospect of meeting someone on the internet is often-times daunting, but with KissCafe the process was easy, fun, and productive.

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