Eight singles were paired together to talk about some of their most intimate feelings on sex, affection, communication and exclusivity in relationships. Following the conversation, participants were provided a date to go on together.

Zachariah Kaufman, straight senior in kinesiology and health, and Anna Pham, straight sophomore in liberal arts and sciences, reflected on their conversation and their date that followed. 

Zachariah Kaufman’s Reflection

Anna and I met at Dairy Queen, had some ice cream and chatted for a while until it was time to head to the movie. The discussion was pretty regular first date small talk; where we’re from, family, friends, majors and ambitions, stuff like that. We then went to see “Ready Player One,” neither of us thought the movie was particularly great, but we had a fun time making fun of how cheesy certain scenes were. After the movie, we still had two free pizzas so I invited her to my place for a game night. My roommates and a few friends were about to play Settlers of Catan so Anna and I joined in.

One thing that went wrong on the date was once I got home my friend reminded me we had an assignment due at midnight. So I introduced Anna to all these new people then ditched her for about 20 minutes to quickly finish the assignment.

I feel kinda bad about it, but she handled it pretty well. All and all I’d be happy to be friends, but I’m not interested in dating Anna.

Anna Pham’s Reflection

The idea of being set up for a date was super intriguing and different for me so I thought why not try Daily Dates??! It was overall an … interesting experience and I’m not sure if I would do it again, but I enjoyed it.

The date started off with us meeting one another at Dairy Queen on Friday, March 30. Zach and I talked about how we got to Iowa State and how awkward the initial video was. It was funny because I mentioned how he might have been a serial killer (he wasn’t) and I wouldn’t even know it. We were there for roughly 30 minutes − which really isn’t enough time to know someone − then rushed to the movies.

We watched “Ready Player One” at North Grand Cinema. It felt like your super cliche movie date. The movie was also really “ehhh” and predictable so that just set the vibe for the whole night. I would have prefered if  we just talked more because it felt like I was just sitting next to a completely random person.

After the movies, he invited me to his place to hang with his friends and play Catan. We got to his place and there were like six other dudes and a girl there. Also, once we got to his place he realized he hadn’t finished his homework due at midnight. So, he ended up leaving me for homework and I was in a room with some strangers.

We were playing games and snacking for another four hours and that was basically the end of the night. I learned I really suck at Catan and set-up dates can be really interesting and will definitely put you out of your comfort zone