Remember that guy or girl from high school, the good
looking one with the great sense of humor? Remember how you always hoped
you would get together, but somehow your
“in-between-boyfriends/girlfriends” cycles just never fell in
sync? Well, you may still have a chance with a first love, years after
graduation day.
Reconnecting with high school friends, romantic
partners and even “might-have-been” boyfriends/ girlfriends
through online reunion Web sites is becoming an increasingly popular
– and successful – dating option. A growing group of mature,
transitioning daters are looking to their past to find the foundation of a
happy future.
“We receive thousands of e-mails from people who
tell us they’ve rekindled an old flame or found new love with an old
high school friend,” says Ted Cahall, chief operating officer of
Classmates Online Inc., which operates the popular Classmates.com Web site
which has 40 million members. “Reconnecting with someone you knew in
school is special because your shared experiences are timeless, so
it’s never too late for a second chance at friendship, romance or
even love.”
From online dating services and Web sites to resurging
interest in blind dates and professional matchmakers, it seems most single,
busy Americans are willing to try just about anything to find their soul
mates. Options abound.
You can have someone you know arrange an old-fashioned
blind date, or make your own through an online dating service.
“Intellidating” entails trying to meet people with similar
interests by going to singles events at places you like to go, such as the
museum or opera. Speed dating – rotating through a series of
potential partners for a few minutes each during lunch hour – may
appeal to the chronically busy. One major cable service now even offers
“dating on demand,” that allows subscribers to view video
profiles of singles from across the country.
For the former Mary Johnson, who re-entered the dating
scene following a divorce, blind dates and Internet dating provided less
than satisfactory results. Johnson, still living in the same Ohio town
where she graduated from high school, decided to turn to Classmates.com to
reconnect with some old girlfriends.
“Most of my friends were all married,” she
says. “I was really trying to find some girlfriends who were in the
same boat as me, and who would be interested in going out
together.”
Within weeks of posting her profile on Classmates.com,
Mary received an e-mail from Jim Bevins. In high school, Bevins was
acquainted with the boyfriend of Mary’s best friend. The quartet went
out together a handful of times during the last half of Mary’s junior
year – Jim’s senior year. Although there was some mutual
attraction, Jim had a girlfriend at the time, and there never seemed to be
an opportunity for the attraction to develop into something more.
Receiving Jim’s e-mail was “unexpected but
exciting,” Mary says. “I remembered the attraction I’d
felt for him in high school and thought to myself this could be
something.” For three months, the pair e-mailed, instant messaged and
talked on the phone. By October 2003, they knew they had to meet in person.
“We had no opportunity to really date since Jim
was living more than 2,000 miles away in California,” Mary says. When
Jim made the trip back to Ohio to see “if the old chemistry was still
there,” Mary picked him up at the airport. “From the moment we
laid eyes on each other, it was all over. We knew we couldn’t live
without each other.”
Bevins sold his house in California and moved back to
Ohio. In August 2004, the couple merged their families – both have
two children, ages 10 and 7, from their previous marriages – and
began making wedding plans. On June 18, 2005, they married in the garden of
their home, with Jim’s son serving as ring-bearer and daughter as
flower girl, and Mary’s two sons giving her away.
Society is becoming more accepting of Internet dating
and other non-traditional means of meeting a partner, Mary suggests.
“If I was 20 and had single girlfriends, I might have done the bar
scene,” she says. “But reconnecting through Classmates.com
provided more of a comfort level. And there is the excitement of
reconnecting with someone from your past.”
It’s never too late to explore the possibility of
rekindling an old flame, or finding new love with an old acquaintance.
It’s easy to visit www.classmates.com and rediscover friends
from kindergarten, grade school, high school, college, work and the
military.
Courtesy of ARA Content
