It's Valentine's Day: the day when billions of cards filled with sweet sentiments are sent to lovers around the world. But what if you happen to be unattached this Valentine's Day? The members of TUTV's hit dating show Jumbo Love Match (JLM) share the wisdom of their match-making experience and provide the answers to finding that special someone.
Tufts Daily: What is your advice to Tufts students looking to find love?
Eric Shapiro: Well, seeing an interaction is one thing and understanding it is another. My advice for Tufts students seeking love would be to just get out there.
Justin Black: You may have your eye on someone, but you may have not had a conversation with them. Casting sidelong glances of yearning at the hottie in your history class will not make him date you. Don't just banter with him or her. I challenge you to dine with one person you have always found interesting or intriguing but haven't had the courage to talk to.
Erin Connolly: For the guys at Tufts, the socially awkward gig won't bring you far in the real world. For girls, no one likes the town bicycle. But still, my advice would be to enjoy it while you can. Never again will you have 4000 kids your age living in a one-mile radius. Soon enough you will be working 12-hour days and not going out six nights a week. Live it up and enjoy yourselves!
TD: How can a person help a date go smoothly?
Dave Naden: Don't try to be too different because you'll just end up saying things you'll end up regretting. Humor works - but get a sense of the kind of humor of the person you're talking to. And don't be cocky: You have to cater your responses to the person's sense of humor. Different people will find different things you say funny and go with it.EC: My advice for women would be to not be a "Stage Five Clinger." My advice for men is not smell like a walking Versace ad - but the traditional male smell doesn't appease the senses either.
TD: What is the worst thing a girl could do on a date?
JB: The worst thing a girl can do on a date is wipe his [her date's] face, making him think of her as his mother.
ES: Not talk and be awkward.
EC: After surveying a bunch of my guy friends about the worst thing a girl could do on a date, they all unanimously came up with the obnoxious answer of "eating."
TD: What would make a girl leave a date?
EC: The worst thing a guy could do on a date would be to talk about their mom and not pay.
JB: The worst thing a guy could do to a girl on a date is start out assuming she wants to have sex with him that night and ask a horrible question like "Your place or mine?"
TD: What is the strangest thing that has happened on the show?
JB: A freshman girl spontaneously shouted "I rock the cock" on camera. I found out later that she'd done it as a dare.
DN: One girl asked her bachelors, "If you were any dinosaur, what would you be? And how would you eat me?"
EC: My first time I was on the show my possible dates handed me a container of birth control. When I was a host my Chi O [Chi Omega] sorority sisters came on as guests and we had a little too much of you-know-what before the show and decided it would be a great idea to divulge all the secrets of our sisterhood. Nonetheless, I wasn't important in the sorority so no one yelled at me, but some others got in a bit of trouble.
TD: What is your opinion of the Tufts dating scene?
JB: Sadly, it is weak-to-nonexistent. The hookup rules supreme.
ES: It seems fine.
EC: What dating scene? If you mean the Tufts hookup scene, I believe that can be aptly described using the 4 I's: Inebriated, Incestual, Idiotic, Intimacy.
