I’ve done a lot of things out of desperation for a date, but spending three hours getting to know about 40 different guys for three minutes each may top them all.

When I signed up for Three Minute Date-In, a charity dating event held in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union to support the Ames Animal Shelter, I thought, “Great. Five fat, unattractive men vying for a poor reporter’s attention.” But what the hey — I just got out of a bad relationship and needed to meet men who aren’t wandering around the newsroom.

So I said, “OK, I’m going to speed date. At the very least, I’m giving $6 to the Ames Animal Shelter.”

When I got to the Great Hall, there was a line in front of the room. It was all men.

I panicked.

Me and 50 men? I wanted to call all the females I know and drag them into this or call my editor and tell him to shove this idea…

But before I could get my cell phone out, one of the organizers came up to me and told the ladies to go to the front of the line. I got my number, lucky 40, and walked into the room. I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw about 30 other girls, just as desperate or bored as myself.

As the men filed in, it began.

“So, what’s your name? What’s your major? What’s your sign?”

I think all of the conversations I had for the first hour surrounded my major and what I do for fun, unless they felt like bashing the Daily. At some point I wanted to get up and scream, “I don’t have fun! I work for the Daily!”

I thought I had found a gem when I moved to the next seat and my “date” asked me what I did on Saturday. Then he ostracized me for not going to the basketball game. In a nice way, of course.

And then there was the computer engineering major who looked like the stereotypical computer engineering major. And the science major with the head shaped like a beaker. There was another who had absolutely nothing to say, almost completely filling the three minutes with an awkward silence.

But luckily, it wasn’t all bad.

I met some guys with potential and I had some really great conversations. I learned about how meteorology can be fun and why Nietzsche was one of the great philosophers.

I met some really attractive, funny guys, all of whom happened to be freshmen. And then there were the two young men who didn’t even go to Iowa State.

This may have been the strangest thing I’ve ever done, and I was actually so nervous that I lost one of my rings after fidgeting with it so much. The room kept filling up, and it got louder and louder, and I felt like I had to scream to have a conversation. I didn’t even get through the whole room of eligible bachelors.

The worst part was the forced half-hour of mingling. I don’t mingle; that’s why I’m a writer.

In the end, I almost lost my voice, the Ames Animal Shelter made $1,000, and I get to wait nervously until this weekend to hear if anyone I liked liked me back.

Dating has changed so much. I thought only weird losers did things like this, but it turns out most of them were pretty normal people. I might even venture to say that I had fun.

Welcome to the future of the dating world, ladies and gentlemen.