Going on first dates can be intimidating or awkward at times. Aakanksha Wunnava went on one with high hopes but later found out her date had a big secret. 

“I met this guy because he came up to me asking for directions,” Wunnava, a senior political science and legal studies major, said. “Then he asked for my number and later asked to get coffee.”

Wunnava said the date didn’t ask her anything about herself before he “started trauma dumping about his parents.” 

“Then he started asking me to trauma dump back,” Wunnava said. “I was like ‘I don’t even know you.’ Then it was a really awkward silence for a long time.”

The following morning, Wunnava received a Facebook message at around 2 a.m. from a girl she didn’t know.

“Turns out he had a girlfriend the whole time,” Wunnava said. “She was like ‘Yeah, he just met my family, like, the day before.’ She also told me that she saw my name on his phone.” 

In the message, the girlfriend told Wunnava that he “was not the kind of person you think.” 

“I was going to ghost him anyways,” Wunnava said. “But it was a weird experience, to say the least.” 

Sara Dugan, a first-year marketing and theater major, went on a date with a girl she had a mutual friend with during her junior year of high school.

“We didn’t go to the same school,” Dugan said. “So we met up at a Dunkin’ after school. The date wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. She was a nice person — we just didn’t connect.”

After leaving the coffee shop, Dugan went to a school concert with some friends.

“I met up with my friends afterwards and they were like ‘Yeah, we followed you the whole time,’” Dugan said. “They were outside the Dunkin’ the entire time and I literally didn’t even notice. It was a bit concerning for them.”

Getting ready for dates can take a lot of time for students like Rachael Hass, a junior communication sciences and disorders major. She went on a date her first year of college that she “spent more time getting ready for” than she actually spent on the date.

“I curled my hair, I picked out my outfit and I painted my nails,” Hass said. “We were only there for an hour before he told me he had to leave.” 

Hass met her date while waiting in line to catch a bus home from a football game in November of her first year at Pitt. She described their meeting as “organic” and said he asked for her Snapchat.

“He asked if I wanted to get dinner and I was like, ‘Sure, that would be great,’” Hass said. “He picked BAO on Atwood Street, which I love. The meal was decent, but he was kind of dry. He wasn’t really giving me much when I was asking questions, and the back and forth was kind of awkward.” 

Hass explained that once the bill came, things got a bit awkward. The two did not ask for separate checks, so the bill came all together. As Hass and her date looked at the bill, Hass asked her date if he wanted her to chip in. He told Hass that “it was OK,” but after Hass asked if he “was sure,” she ended up paying for the bill and tip, and they finished dinner around 7 p.m. 

“I just felt like it was unattractive,” Hass said. “Then he asked what I was doing afterwards and I told him I didn’t have anything going on, thinking we would do something afterwards since it was still early. Then he told me he had a party to go to.” 

“I left him on open on Snapchat after the date,” Hass said.

Claudia Porter, a sophomore linguistics major, went on a date with someone she met on Hinge to see their art at a public showcase.

“It was a student at a different university, and they said they had an art showing,” Porter said. “And I was like, ‘This is great’ because I was trying to see them again, so I asked if I could come. They said yeah, but that they had to sit at a table for their class.”

Porter thought that she could help them at the table and that they could spend time alone, just the two of them.

“I got to their campus and realized it was a public display,” Porter said. “They walked me around and it was really cute because it was like a day at a museum. Then they had to start their table, and I realized their entire class and professor was there.” 

Porter said the room had a DJ booth and a place to dance at the end of it. Their date asked Porter to dance even though they’d be alone doing so. 

“They requested an EDM song, and I don’t really like EDM,” Porter said. “Then we started dancing and I tried, but it was just really uncomfortable for me.”

After the dance, the pair returned back to the table. Porter recalled “just kind of sitting there and watching people walk by.” 

“At the end of the night, I helped them and their class pack and clean everything,” Porter said. “We hugged goodbye and later that night they texted me to end things.”