If you are like most people, you are terrified of blind dates, which is probably why you are certain you have never been on one. After all, you have always said no to all your well intended friends who tried to set you up. But are you so certain you have never been on a blind date?

Blind Dates Are Strangers?

Most of us don’t stop to think about it, but we go on more blind date than we think. What is a blind date? At first, the easy answer is going on a date with some you know nothing or very little about. Usually, you have never even seen the person. Some other times, you have seen a picture and got some information from the matchmaker that usually goes along the line of “he is so cute, you are going to love each other.”

Now, let’s consider the last time you went on a date. Was it someone you met at a party? Or did you meet online? Or maybe you met at the coffee shop around the corner, or during happy hour after work on Friday evening. The truth is, despite everything we believe, more often than not, we know very little about the person we will be meeting for the first date. In fact, if you met the person online, you cannot swear you know what the person even looks like.

More Blind Dates Than You Think

Whether we like the idea or not, most of our dates are blind. The super cute dude at the party last night can’t actually hold a conversation that interest you for five minutes and his favourite word is “dude”. The sexy gentleman at the coffee shop is so full of himself you have to hold yourself from throwing up. And your online date, well, he forgot to mention the picture was his cousin’s or his ten year younger version.

Blind date isn’t just when all your married friends try to see you join the club by setting you up with the first single they can meet. Blind date is also when you willingly meet with someone you thought had potential just to discover two minutes in the meeting that you must have had one too many drinks when you agreed to the date.

Who Is The Blind On Your Date?

But more importantly, what’s blind about the date isn’t the other person, or the very little we know about him. What makes a date blind is our own inflated expectations, our overenthusiastic dreams, and our hopes beyond hopes that suddenly we are going to meet “the one” walking down the street and he will sweep us off our feet.

The blind on a blind date is each one of us who choose to close her eyes and see what she wants. This is not to say we shouldn’t dream or hope. It’s only to say as long as we hope too much, and expect too much before we have even had a decent conversation with someone, we will always be going on a blind date.