u/Hayaw061

Let me start by saying this is literally my first date ever, so this is all very new to me. I never really dated before because I was focused on school and work, and honestly didn’t feel like I was in a place for it. Now that I’ve graduated, I’ve been trying to put myself out there.

I (24M) matched with a woman (26F) on a dating app, and she gave me her number almost immediately without me even asking. She seems genuinely sweet, but so far I’m not sure if I'm feeling the connection. We don’t seem to share many interests, and it feels like we come from very different lifestyles.

I’m pretty typical for my age. I like things such as traveling, fitness, and gaming. I recently finished my master’s degree and I’m focused on building my career. She seems much more reserved and home-oriented, and into things like going to religious retreats for meditation. She's never gone too far from home and doesn't seem like she has much interest in doing so, either. There’s nothing wrong with all of that, but I’m not sure our personalities and interests really mesh well. Also, I am very afraid she likely has a neutral or negative opinion on gaming. Don't even get me started on associated topics like anything internet culture/anime/etc.

I’ve also thought a bit about long-term compatibility. I want kids someday, but probably not until my mid-30s because of my career and financial goals. Since she’s older than me, I have a concern that's not exclusive to her, but in regards to any women older than me. I feel there's more and more pressure for women to have kids the closer they get to 30, and I'm just not ready for that stage of life yet. I haven't talked about this with her yet. Her profile made no mention of family plans, unlike mine which I have set to "wants kids someday." This topic doesn't feel appropriate to discuss before or during the first date anyhow.

Ultimately, I’m looking for both a partner and a best friend, someone I can share hobbies, humor, travel, or even gaming with. Right now, I’m not sure I see that connection, but I also don’t want to judge too early before meeting in person.

Is it reasonable to feel like the vibe may not be there already? I still plan to go on the date, so what should I focus on getting out of it? This will be very causal. And actually, is there anything I should try to achieve BEFORE the date? So far it's really just been small talk texting. Having to wait a whole week for this will be a little rough.

TL;DR: First date ever. She seems nice, but we have very different lifestyles/interests. Is it too early to already feel like the vibe may not be there? What should I strive to get out of the date?

I (24m) matched with a woman (26f) on a dating app and for the first time in my life I’ve got a date planned. I know that sounds a bit sad given I’m almost 25.

She agreed to the usual lunch/dinner meetup for next weekend. She’s not a picky eater so any kind of food works, but I was thinking either Italian or Japanese.

My friend recommended we also do something afterwards like stop for ice cream. He also said I should get her flowers and give them to her at the beginning so “she’ll look at them getting in/out of the car during the date and on the way home and think of you, plus it gives her something to tell her friends about.” Idk about all that though, that kinda feels like love bombing.

Any advice for what to should do and what to expect? Also, what all should happen between now and then in the meantime?

So many women just say “not on here” or “don’t have premium” and say to just message them on Snapchat or Instagram.

I’m not even talking about the ones that are bots or only there to promote their content. But say you do message them, probably something like “hey I saw you on an app.” What next, they ask for a selfie and if you’re not hot you get blocked? Is that how it goes?

Legitimately curious because I’ve never bothered to reach out that way, and I probably will never do so either. It seems silly.

Given how much more mainstream women in gaming and anime have become, is it still considered "bad" to mention these in your bio? At least as a guy anyways.

Personally if I were talking to someone IRL I wouldn't start with the fact I'm into gaming and anime because that just seems like an instant turnoff. Is it any different on apps?

You could let women know up front what you're into and if they don't like it, they swipe left, but then you end up getting no likes and the algorithm sends you to the bottom, never to be seen again.

I just graduated with a Master's in Accounting. I've got the credits needed to start working towards getting a CPA. Thus far, my signature has just read, "MS Accounting, [my university]" and below that my phone number and a hyperlink to my LinkedIn profile.

Now that I've graduated I feel like I should probably change it. But how so? What would look good? I'm currently unemployed and this is my personal professional email that I use to reach out to recruiters or follow up on applications.

I keep seeing their ad on Reddit of the girl at an anime convention. Maybe you’ve seen it too.

For one, she looks AI generated. And two, there’s no way that such an app isn’t a massive sausage fest, right? Even though the ad I think is technically aimed at women who are into anime, it’s still clearly targeting men who are. I’m not saying that women who like anime don’t exist, but it’s probably significantly less than the amount of guys that do. I’d wager Boo has one of the worst gender ratios of any dating app.

Has anyone used it or know anyone who has? What was the experience like?

I (24M) and a good friend (20F) have been talking for several months. We’re not official but It’s clear she holds me in a special regard. Her friends jokingly call us husband and wife and I know for a fact she talks about me while I’m not present.

She lives about 600 mi away and is open to the idea of meeting up. I proposed a possibility during a business trip a few months ago but I ended up being too busy that I couldn’t go see her. I have time now where I could, but she’s never put forward any such ideas of her own. I feel that she lacks initiative a lot of the time with many things, honestly.

A big concern is that I think she might see me as a “way out” or like a savior if that makes sense. She lives in a small college town and seemingly has no career prospects. She’s expressed that she wants out of her house since it’s overcrowded with her several siblings, but I honestly don’t see how she plans to do that without someone offering to have her move in with them elsewhere.

I’m afraid of being blinded by the fact that she’s the first girl to see me in this sort of way in a long time (the last one I only realized in hindsight 😔), and while she does see me some sort of way, doesn’t necessarily mean she’s the right one for me.

Personally, I think I’m leaning more towards staying friends and just seeing who else is out there for now. But I also don’t want to just give up on her if there’s any potential here. Is there a good way to gauge her thoughts or motives? If a conversation, how do I approach it at this stage without ruining the friendship?

So nothing like how Fullmetal Alchemist finished before the manga did. I mean ones where the anime took a different ending due to public opinion, backlash, controversy, etc. to the source material’s ending.

Basically, does public pressure work on anime adaptations?

I won a fairly prestigious scholarship related to my field, but it turns out it's for semesters beyond my graduation so I can't use it. It's a confusing situation how that happened.

So they obviously had to go with someone else. All the winners are named on their website, so if anyone were to check, my name isn't there. I do still have the voicemail they left me saying I won, though.

The head of my major's department also had recommended me for another scholarship that's fairly prestigious as well and suggested I include it to strengthen my resume. Until now I had not included any of the other scholarships I'd won (I didn't think employers really cared), but now I figure it can't hurt.

Should I include the one I technically won, though? Would they actually check that?

I’m still new to writing, but with the project I’ve been working on I’ve always imagined the end result being a light novel style book. Think, shorter length, some simpler dialogue, full illustration pages with an anime art style. I love that format and prefer it to regular books because I get burnt out easily reading nothing but pages and pages of text alone, and while I’m good at visualizing, I appreciate the illustrations.

Original English light novels exist but there’s probably a reason you never hear of them. I couldn’t even name one myself without Googling. It also often looks like their artwork is rather… mediocre, at least when you compare them to Japanese light novels.

So even if your story is good and so is your art, you still run into the issue of the market. Is there much of one for such a thing? If I had asked this 10 years ago everyone would’ve probably said absolutely not, and good luck finding a publisher if you aren’t self-publishing. But the popularity of anime and manga in the West has exploded since then and it’s becoming more mainstream every day. So nowadays? I wonder how that has changed.

Also, for reference my project falls into the genres of adventure, war, and dark fantasy, with a young adult demographic. So I’m not talking about certain genres that sell in Japan but Westerners would find weird or creepy. But would I really find success with a light novel format? I could absolutely write it as a normal Western style novel, but that’s not exactly what I want to do, and I know I will face challenges because of that.