Emma is a third-year in the Engineering School.
Hobbies/U.Va. involvement: Club water polo, HackCville & Gamma Phi sorority
What makes you a good catch? Emma's such a fun/kind individual with an incredibly strong sense of self. She loves cracking jokes and goofing off but is also great at having really meaningful conversations with people. (Yes, this is 110% her roommate signing her up for Love Connection — Emma doesn't speak about herself in the third person, thank goodness).
What’s your theme song? “Closer” (was her jam FOREVER, but I think we're past that) and/or anything Kanye
Why do you embody your zodiac sign? Virgo: easy, she's hella organized & incredibly strong-willed
Jeremy is a fourth-year in the Engineering School.
Hobbies/U.Va. involvement: Reformed University Fellowship, University Guide Service, former member of like seven CIOs
What makes you a good catch? I'm confident yet empathetic and can talk for hours about college basketball, institutional problems of U.Va. and subcultures of U.Va., and why Panda Express is literally the only thing that's missing from Charlottesville. Also, I'm hot.
What’s your theme song? Anything by Fleet Foxes
Why do you embody your zodiac sign? Apparently I'm supposed to be deeply intuitive and sentimental. I mean sure.
Emma and Jeremy met at 2:00 p.m. and went for a late lunch at Bellair Market.
Jeremy: So, I’ve read a lot about these Love Connection dates, right? Everyone goes on them expecting to meet a friend, you know, just have a casual conversation, so I was — while this may be true — I was intentionally trying to switch it up and go in with the expectation that this is the love of my life. I wanted to do something a little bit different than the Love Connection dates I’ve seen, just going to like Roots or somewhere on the Corner, so I worked out for her to be picked up by me.
Emma: So he picked me up at the church and we went to Bellair Market — which I told him that I hadn’t been there before but I totally had, I just forgot the name of it. So then we got sandwiches and we went to like, I’m not sure what it’s called, but like a reservoir that’s close to there and we just like sat there and ate our sandwiches and then walked around a little bit. It was fun.
Jeremy: I remembered that there was a reservoir not too far away, and so I suggest that maybe we could go there, eat, maybe hike a little bit, that would be a nice date, right? So, she says that sounds great, and we got in the car and drove there. So, [we were] talking about internship stuff, which was fun, because we’re kind of interested in the some of the same sort of things. So that was nice and, meanwhile, while this conversation is going on, I’m like 90 percent sure that where I’m going is correct, but there’s like 10 percent of me that like has no idea where I’m going … We’re driving down this gravel road into the woods in the middle of nowhere and it seriously seems ... creepy… I felt bad, so I told her like, “Look, I’m pretty sure we’re going to the right place.” So that definitely did not do a great job of setting the mood, but once we got to the reservoir it was really nice.
Emma: There was definitely a period where I was slightly like, “What’s going on?” because the reservoir thing was just down this gravel road for a long time and I was like, “I hope he knows where he’s going,” but everything was fine. Once we got past the typical questions you would ask someone meeting for the first time it was … a little bit like, “I don’t really know what to ask next,” but we kind of moved past that pretty quickly. He was an Orientation Leader, so he kind of pushed through that really well and I’m more shy and awkward … but yeah, it was pretty normal and easy. I think it really helped that we had a lot in common.
Jeremy: So we get there, find a nice table, so from there just continuing to just kind of catch up about our U.Va. experience, just go a little bit more into what we’re interested in and like to do … She does club water polo which is really great so we talked about that, we talked about her sorority, and about some of the music that we both listen to, just stuff like that.
Emma: Then we talked from there more about different things that we expected coming into college and things that were different that actually happened. But it was a lot of just, both of us have done a lot of different things and kind of just settled in different places and when — like, we both started in a lot of different communities and ended up in different communities. So we talked a lot about that transition, so it was just still pretty surface level but I felt like it was mostly just because I had never met him before so it was just a lot of ground to cover. I felt like it would have been fine to talk about deeper stuff.
Jeremy: The path was a little bit muddy so we weren’t going to walk around for long … [We talked] about what we were going to do for the rest of the day, so then I took her home and that was that.
Emma: Because we were in the car and I live in the Gamma Phi house which is, like, on 17th so … he was like dropping me off and we were kind of talking and then a car came so it was just like, “Peace,” and then he rolled out. So, I gave him my number earlier and then he texted me like right after that but … that part was a little awkward but not because of our situation, just because of the oncoming car. It was kind of just like, “We’re done now.” I think he dropped me off at, like, a little after 4:00 [p.m.] and he picked me up at like a little before 2:00 [p.m.] so we hung out for awhile.
Jeremy: Yeah, so as far as blind dates go — again the expectation is gonna be the love of my life — not sure that she will be … to quote literally every single person that has ever gone on a Love Connection date, it was more of a friend vibe. But yeah, it was a good time. I would give it right at the two-thirds range, so like a seven out of ten.
Emma: I just feel like this was a pretty ideal situation for a blind date sort of thing, not knowing him at all … I was just expecting it to be so awkward and so weird and I just had a good time. I was expecting to not like it at all, but like I had fun and he was a cool person to meet, so maybe a nine or ten.
Jeremy: I would definitely be open to [hanging out again]. Emma was great, so I’d definitely be open to it.
Emma: I had fun, he was cool … it could have been a lot worse than it was … we’re in similar-ish circles so I don’t know — we haven't really talked since then, but I go to a lot of things, like different Guides things, and I’ve seen him around when I’ve been out before, so I’d be down to hang out again.
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