The Matching Game: Dating When You Are Single/Widowed/Divorced

I devised a great idea for a novella that required online dating experience. I've never dated online or offline, so I was drawing a blank. I went online and asked GPT-4 for assistance, but AI just gave me the particulars, and I'm picky about writing things I have some experience in and not relying on AI to provide me with knowledge best learned by myself. 
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​I checked in with my kids to let them know what I was doing, and they were good with it. Especially my sons. My daughter I may have sensed some hesitation, but not much. So, I closed my eyes, plugged my nose, and jumped into the Christian online dating game. Before I go any further, I have deleted my profile from all online dating apps. I learned quite a bit about online dating, and I learned a lot about myself. 

I did force myself to stay online for four weeks. But it was four weeks too much. I did find people from high school. That was fun and appreciated.  But I'm done. 

Little did I know that once you sign up for one site your profile is peopled across many others. I learned shortly thereafter that they are all owned by Match.com. So, if you think you are on a Christian site, think again, you are everywhere. It didn't take long before I had more requests than I could count. I have no idea how people do this and not end up dead. You'd have to do background checks on everyone.  You'd be safe, but broke. 

It was such a relief to delete my profile. 

The best part about the entire experience is I learned the jargon, taught myself how to look out for red flags, and trusted no one. The one person from high school I verified with another classmate.  I hated the angst. I feel an obligation to humanity to not cause unnecessary pain. My boys watched me on my journey and encouraged me. I think they were disappointed when I deleted my profile.

Since these last two years have been about challenging and overcoming my fears, this is another one I can cross off my list. I am the kind of person that once I give my heart to someone, it stays there. Anything else is just trying to fill spaces.