Once a person finishes high school and college, maybe even university, where do they continue to meet new people? As I have watched in many of my friends, it ends up being the bar where they meet their next trial-run boyfriend, and it usually ends in disaster.

So people are looking to other ways of meeting and dating. Speed dating, blind dates, matchmaking services, and online dating are all options available.

I know the words “we met online” frequently make people raise an eyebrow in question of the scenario, but it is more and more common that people are meeting through a technological medium.

I was raised in a family of innovative and up-to-date gadgets and gizmos. Having grown up around computers, and the Internet, it wasn’t abnormal for me to take it one step further and look for Mr. Right using a means I had already grown to love and trust.

I can find information in abundance online, contacts for news stories, events to cover, and much more, so why not look for companionship where I find the necessary bits of the puzzle for my career?

So I began my search and found out quickly how many of my friends had tried online dating and were able to point me in the right direction by way of “Try this web site” or “This one worked for me.”

I eventually created a profile and waited, hoping he would contact me before realizing that it is a changing society in which a woman approaching a man is perfectly acceptable. So I said hello to the few men that the web site had chosen as ‘matches’ for me.

And the computer hit the nail on the head. After going on three different dates I had turned one man down, befriended another and discovered the man who I now trust implicitly and call my boyfriend.

You can’t sit in a bar with a sign that says “I want a tall, blonde, green eyed, athletic, moderately wealthy man with no children but hopes to have some in the future” and expect to meet someone sane.

Online, these criteria can be picked apart and you truly can choose your match based on what you know you do and don’t like. These criteria are what allow the computer, the matchmaker, to find someone suited to your personality and your preferences.

There are some things still to be cautious about when it comes to meeting someone online.

I always made sure to meet them in a public place and made sure that a friend or family member knew where I was meeting them and how long I expected to be.

I never expected something to go wrong, but on the off chance that it did I wanted to have my bases covered. Instead of things going wrong, they went very right for me and I met my Prince Charming.

In my eyes, online dating is just another way of using to our advantage the technology that has been given to us for other necessities including shopping, working and learning.

There will be people who judge online relationships and those who accept them fully, but really who does it matter to except the happy couple? And the whole story doesn’t always need to be told.

When people ask, you can always tell them you met at a coffee shop.

My story is kind of self-explanatory and is one of those good ones where online dating didn’t go awry and where something good came out of something that sometimes receives a lot of criticism.

So to those who think it might be worth a try, go for it and see where it takes you. But for those uninterested in the online dating scene, just accept it and know that everyone wants to meet someone, somewhere.

kpalardy@reddeerexpress.com