1. My aunt and uncle met in their 40s after they both took a continuing education class in the evening on how to meet someone, which I find really adorable

2. Tinder. We really didn’t click on our first like… 3 dates. I was wanting to call it off after that, and she went traveling to Japan for 2 weeks, and I figure we would ghost after that, but she messaged me when she came back, and I figure why not. It wasn’t until our 5th or 6th date that I actually got to really know her, and I’m so glad I held out.

Everybody has their flaws, and if you keep going with that swiping lifestyle where you ditch a person after 2 okay-ish dates, but no “spark” you’re going to wear yourself out. Introverted people really take time to come through, and you should really give them that time, because once you get comfortable, that’s when the magic happens. Give a person 5-6 dates before you decide it won’t work out.

3. As unbelievable as it may seem, my now wife chased me down on the highway to get my number. Was just driving home from some night classes at about 11PM. Not a lot of traffic out. I hop on the highway to go home when I see a car coming up on my rear very fast. I thought I had maybe accidentally cut this person off earlier or something, and now they were road raging. I start to get a little defensive, and move to the right and slow down. The car ends up matching up my speed, and I’m thinking oh, great here it goes. All of the sudden a girl pops out the passenger side window, and yells “WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER”. I tried using my hands to gesture my number, but it wasn’t working too well. We ended up exiting off the highway, exchange numbers, started texting, and went on our first date 3 days later. We’ve been together 8 years, married 4, and have a six year old son together. I love her dearly, and still can’t believe I got that lucky.

4. Not me but a couple of co-workers. A new colleague joined the team, and he and old colleague said they fell in love the moment they laid eyes on each other, and that they instantly just knew that was the person they would marry. They pretty much started planning their wedding on their first date. Both in their 40s.

5. I made a post on a subreddit to find some new online friends last year when I was 32. I got a bunch of replies that didn’t really go anywhere, but one of them and myself hit it off immediately and became quickly obvious we liked each other more than the casual friend subreddit had started us out with. We ended up being in a relationship from it for half a year, and it was a good learning experience for an inexperienced loser like myself.

6. My now wife saw me reading in a bar on a Friday night. She came over and put her number in my phone and told me to call her. I was 38 and she was 40.

7. Saw her in line for a roller coaster and she was super scared. Told her to sit next to me and everything would be fine. Got her number later and been going strong for 2 years now.

8. I met my first girlfriend at an age around 25 at dance lessons. It required some courage to go there, because at the first lesson you are responsible to find your dance partner.

My first dance partner didn’t come back to the second lesson, and luckily for me her dance partner didn’t show up either, so she was my new dance partner for the course.

Dance lessons are great, because not only will you see her every week, you have to hold eye contact while dancing and are required to touch and you will learn how to dance, which a lot of women appreciate.

It still took me about half a year to finally have the cojones to ask her out.

P.S: Of course one should not go to dancing lesson with the goal to get a girlfriend, but just to learn dancing.

9. I was convinced I would be single the rest of my life and was comfortable with that. Then my car broke. The mechanic asked me out for lunch. I was crazy about him from day 1. I was 37, he was 27. We’re going to celebrate 11 years together in November. I didn’t even have my baby until I was 44!

10. I was 29 when I decided to end my quarter life crisis by taking a second degree. Met him in my second year when I was acting in a student film he was camera assistant on. He was dating someone else at the time so I backed off, but we both share a passion for scuba diving so we finally arranged a trip together. He broke up with his ex (who was cheating) while on the trip and then we dated on an exclusive but not-fully-committed basis because I didn’t want to be a rebound and I have commitment phobia. We’re married now.

I always think back to my first degree and how I didn’t make life long friends or have a single relationship, and how it took a second degree to have that sort of romanticized college experience. Increased maturity and being on medication for my anxiety had a lot to do with it, and I’m weirdly grateful for the depression that kicked off my quarter life crisis for getting me to where I am today.

11. My wife and I were really close friends for about 10 years before we started dating. Sometimes the love of your life is right in front of you and you don’t even know it.

12. POKEMON GO! There, I said it.

No we are not 15 years old. YES we are still together. Actually we just moved in together.

13. Was a friend of a friend, was amused by the banter between me and the mutual friend on a facebook post, ended up messaging her.

14. At a bar while I was out getting food with one of my friends. I asked a group of friends if they wanted to play pool, and one of her friends said I should really talk to her other friend, and I did.

15. I went up to a girl I thought was beautiful and said hi.

16. I work for a basketball team. She is a season ticket holder. Saw each other frequently but never said hello. We bumped into each other on the internet a few times, then in a coffee shop. Still work for the team, and she a regular at team functions. Been together about 18 months now.

17. A great uncle who happens to be a chemistry professor met a nun at some church volunteer function. They were both in their 60s. They fell in love and she left the Church to marry him. Now in their 70s, they’re the happiest and most chipper couple that can be and travel the world together.

18. I met my husband at the age of 50 on a group butterfly hunting trip in East Tennessee. We’ve been together seven years and married for five and still go on butterfly hunting trips in different parts of the world.

19. By going out and actively searching for someone. All the time I thought “the right one” would just present herself to me, which wasn’t the point.

20. Both 40. In an online game. I was in Europe, he was in New Zealand. Started chatting/texting in the game. Moved to texting on WhatsApp. Pretty soon we were in daily 3 hour phone calls. 3 months later we went for vacation in Thailand just to confirm what we already knew. And I moved to New Zealand couple months after that.

We are getting married this February on our 5 year anniversary in a beach wedding. He is still the one. P.S. In case you need more romance: we got engaged in Paris, under the Eiffel Tower.

21. Online! OK Cupid worked for us. (But I also had many, many online dates that didn’t pan out.) We are now married and expecting our second child.

22. I am 68. She is 62. It was a cliche of a meeting: in the produce department of a local grocery. I saw her, wandered over to her and asked how I could choose a ripe cantaloupe. That was last spring. Now we are meeting siblings. It has been a soul satisfying adventure!

23. Approaching 30, I decided that I was never going to find anyone. I worked long hours and was shy and unsociable. Plenty of girls I admired from a distance, but never considered myself good enough to date. My friend handed me a girl’s phone number, a friend of his gf. I got up the nerve to call her (these were in the days of phone boxes.) Apparently she had been warned that I might call. Arranged a date. I got lost on the way to her place and arrived late. Tripped over her front step in the dark and fell through the door when she opened it. Together nearly 30 years.

24. My SO actually hit me up on social media, I know the stereotypes are men usually holler at women on there but I guess I got lucky.

25. Internet dating. Just do it. Suspend your idealistic dreams of more organic approaches and take a mint for the bad taste it leaves in your mouth. It’s just how our culture works these days.

26. She interviewed me for an article she was writing. We added each other on Facebook, then nothing for a long time. Eventually we started commenting on each other’s posts, then we started talking and then eventually we got married.

27. I agreed to a blind date. My roommate was sure we would like each other. She was right, we’ve been married for 25 years.

28. I met her at a gaming convention, E stalked her, switched to her server and made myself available to play whenever she was around.

When I write it out it sounds really creepy but I was smitten with her after spending a weekend together that I knew I needed to do whatever it took to put myself in a position to be in her life.

Married, 2 dogs and a stupidly expensive house in Virginia.

29. I was 33, he was 36, we were both playing an MMORPG. After 7 years of raids, lots of phone time, and secrets shared, we finally met.

Right now, he’s snoring on my shoulder as I cruise reddit. We’re on our honeymoon.

30. Honestly I like the dating apps. Maybe even look at some of the paid more serious ones because there are people looking for relationships. Thats how I met mine, we matched and met up later that night and when I met her I felt a freeness where I could just speak and not worry about being judged based on what I was saying, and a level of comfort just existed that I never felt before and that was very special for me.

31. My car broke down, and the shop ended up keeping it for a few weeks while waiting for a part. I lived about 20 miles south of the town I worked, and got several rides from both my coworkers, and people at other agencies that I shared clients with (was a social worker.) I got a ride home from someone who worked with him (as a coworker) and offered to set me up, completely out out of the blue. I was 28, he was 33.

32. I met him at a running club I am a part of. I had been crushing on him super hard, and we ended up laying a trail together, and the rest is history.

33. I saw this gorgeous man on my “people you may know” on Facebook. I clicked on him because he was so good looking I thought he must be fake. Turned out we had a lot of mutual friends! I sent him a friend request, he replied back “howdy stranger!” I fell instantly in love with this hunky dork. A week later we were dating, a year and a half later we were engaged, and now we have been married for about year and a half! He is 36 and I’m 38.

34. Facebook. She thought she knew me, I accepted her and went against my shy nature and started talking to her. Turns out there were so many times in our pasts where we could’ve met but didn’t quite.

Just passed our 9 year anniversary and have a beautiful daughter together.

35. Volunteer work. My mother said I would meet heaps of women doing it.

There was heaps of elderly women, the only women my age were the people we were serving (food) at a shelter.

One girl was pretty cool. She was homeless and couch surfing. She said she was paying off her mortgage when the floods hit. She lost everything. Started using drugs and lost all her savings to a habit.

We’ve been dating for 8 months. I want to have babies with her.

36. Both in our mid-30s. She was a dear friend for 10 years. After a lot of Will-they-won’t-they, we finally decided to give it a shot a few years back. Got married yesterday. 10/10 would wife her again.

37. Tinder. I was having issues with the online dating so I tried a different strategy. I swiped right on everyone. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner I took a minute to furiously swipe. Then I vetted the people whom also likeme. Then I just talked to them everyday. I talked to most of them for weeks without asking them out. My girlfriend is the only one who took the iniative to ask me out.

38. I was 32 working a shitty job as a waitress and getting ready to start nursing school. He was 33, recently clean and worked as a carpet cleaner who cleaned our restaurant carpets once a week.

We’re 39 and 40 now, a nurse and a counselor, married in March and have a really rad little boy.

39. I met her at the airport when we were both 38. She was a grade school classmate of mine. I recognized her and asked where she was traveling. She said, “I’m going to California. It’s my birthday today.” I asked if I could buy her a birthday Bloody Mary and she said “Sure.”

Three years later we own a home and are engaged!

40. I got married at 33 years old, which is practically an ancient age to get married in the South. I met her on eHarmony because I lived in a small ass town and knew nobody. Not the most romantic of stories but it helped us meet and now we are expecting a little girl in April!

41. Car pooling for a fun activity.

My country started having big roller skating rides through its main cities. Some enthusiasts built a forum and I started offering other people to share the car. It was a company car and gas was free, so everybody was happy. It built a really nice community and that’s how I met her. I was 26 at the time and that was 10+ years ago.

Dating is too often leaving little chance to getting to know each other properly. The forum allowed a lot of people to discuss about a shared interest, get a reason to meet IRL with hundreds or thousands of people around and understanding that you really get along great with some of those people. Also, you don’t feel like you’re going there to meet people, you just go for fun, which removes a lot of the pressure.

So my advice is: find an activity that gets you out of your home and lets you meet other people who share that interest. Best if the activity has little gender bias. Even if you don’t find a partner, you’ll gain friends.

42. I went to a quiz night every week and this one week my team couldn’t make it. I’d asked someone I’d meet through work to come that week so she brought her husband, and so we’d have some more numbers, her husband brought a friend. I married the friend a couple of years later and now we have 3 kids. I was 36 and he was my first boyfriend.

43. My mom put an ad in the newspaper and my dad replied. They were in their late 30s when they met and have been together for almost 20 years now.

44. Went to a 10ys meet up of my school’s graduation class. Told the girl I had a crush on in 8th grade, that I had a crush on her, back in school. Now we’re together for about 1,5ys and recently moved together. Haven’t had a real long term gf before and I was 30ys old…

45. The internet. I was the “ugly fat girl”(meaning I was puberty chubby and dressed badly because dad didn’t like the fact I was a girl) in my high school and being a huge weeb in middle school didn’t help my street cred either. I was on OKcupid to make jokes at my bestie who was also on there and I saw my husbands’s bright blue eyes and I was smitten, even more so when I finally met him and all his freckle-y cuteness. I messaged him a question about a Scifi series and the rest was history, he’s the best part of my life and it’s super wild to me that he’s actually mine because of what a good and handsome man he is.

46. My husband literally picked me up at a cast party.

I was talking to the playwright, and my husband came up and said “excuse me, Bruce, but she and I were due to leave a while ago” and he threw me over his shoulder and carried me out of the party. If I were a tiny thing, I’d be furious. But I’m almost 6′, and finally found a man who could pick me up and throw me over his shoulder and I’d be damned if I was letting him get away.

47. At 33 after being single for awhile and planning on staying single for awhile. I bought a 1 bedroom house.

Bad snowstorm my mailbox got taken out by a plow truck. Before I got around to fixing it she bought the house across the street. She stole my mailbox post.

I took a board and put both our boxes on 1 post. Went over & told her what happened. She showed up at my house with a 6 pack & a plate of brownies the next day.

We’ve been together 4yrs now. Married for 3yrs. We just sold my house a few months ago after renting it out for a few years.

48. We met on Bumble. I spent a year dating anyone who even feigned interest to get myself out of my comfort zone, and ended up finding the one after a full year of bad dates and then even worse dates. Had a great time figuring out what I wanted for my life and really focused on those things, and found him there. It was not easy, but the apps can end up being fun and if you invest in your self and look at it as a chance to meet new people, amazing things can happen!

49. Open Mic during the Andrew Dice Clay era of comedy. While everyone else aped his arrogance, I was an early adopter of the self-deprecating style. She found my lack of confidence sexy.

50. I helped an old drunk who had fallen down in the road with his vodka bottle. Blood all over my car and the hottest paramedic in the universe cleaned up the blood. After three days of thinking, I called the fire dept and said I wanted to meet the hot medic. The guy who answered the phone was awesome and so I went to dinner at the station and ends up the hot medic was gay. After they had a laugh about that they set me up with another fireman and have been with him for twenty years now.