Photo @urgantcom

One day, native Petersburger Ivan Urgant returned to his hometown for a while from Moscow, where at that time he worked on television, met a girl on the street and realized that here she was, true love! It was Natalya Kiknadze, a former classmate of Urgant. They were friends at school, played KVN together, and at graduation Ivan even tried to propose, but was refused. And now, 10 years later, they met again! They sat in a small cozy cafe and each talked about their lives, realizing more and more that the comedian at that time had already divorced his first wife Karina and received the unofficial title of “The most desirable bachelor in the country,” and Natalya had given birth to two children from her first husband. After meeting with Natalya, Urgant returned to Moscow, but they continued to communicate and eventually decided that they should be together. The couple does not advertise their personal life; the wedding was a secret and only for those closest to them. Ivan and Natalya have two daughters, Nina and Valeria. Also, Erica, Natalya’s daughter from her first marriage, lived in the family for a long time, until she left to study in Britain.

David and Victoria Beckham

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The famous football player first noticed the beauty long before their first meeting. He saw her in the video “Say You’ll Be There” by the Spice Girl group, of which the girl was a member for a long time. After some time, Victoria, at the invitation of a friend, went to a football match, where they were already able to see each other live. It was love at first sight! David still keeps the boarding ticket for the match, on which Victoria wrote down her phone number.

Kate Middleton and Prince William

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This story is reminiscent of the Cinderella fairy tale! Kate Middleton was born into a simple family: her father Michael is a member of the middle class, and her mother Carol is a hereditary native of an old family of Harrison coal miners from County Durham. Prince William belongs to the very royal nobility, but fate brought them together at the University of St. Andrews. At first, the young people were simply friends and denied rumors of an affair, but Western media immediately noticed that this was not friendship, but rather love. Only after a while the rumors were confirmed, and the couple stopped hiding their relationship. For a long time, the girl was waiting for a proposal from her lover, and after almost 10 years it happened! In 2010, Buckingham Palace officially announced the engagement of Kate and William. They got married at the end of April 2011.

Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones

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The American film actor and producer, winner of two Oscar awards, met his true love, when he was well over 50. It is surprising that Michael and Katherine were born on the same day, September 25, but 25 years apart. They met in 1998 at a private dinner after a screening of the film “The Mask of Zorro.” And, as the actor’s friends say, he fell in love immediately and forever. The conqueror of many women's hearts was embarrassed and blushed in the presence of the proud beauty, like an inexperienced youth. She accepted his advances, but nothing more. Catherine was even accused of commercialism, because Zeta-Jones accepted not only courtship, but also expensive gifts, but can we really talk about sincere relationships if the lady is a quarter of a century younger? But Douglas was persistent. The beauty gave up. In June 1999, they officially declared themselves a couple, and on December 31, Douglas proposed to his beloved. The couple have two children, Dylan and Caris. There were difficult periods in their relationship - Michael struggled with laryngeal cancer, Katherine was treated for depression. They even separated for a while, but despite rumors of divorce, the two stars are still together.

Pavel Priluchny and Agata Muceniece

The famous acting couple met in 2010 on the set of the popular TV series “Closed School,” where Pavel and Agatha played lovers. The handsome actor immediately drew attention to the charming blonde, but did not talk about his feelings for a long time. Agatha recalls how mysteriously he looked at her, and during breaks between filming he got into his dark car and did not leave until the next takes. It turned out that he deliberately intrigued his beloved. Everything fell into place after the first kiss on camera. It was then that Pavel realized that Agatha was the one, the only one, and there was no point in hiding her feelings! At that time, the girl had a boyfriend, but the relationship was tense. Pavel Priluchny made it clear to the actress that if anything happened, he was there... And he really was there at the right moment! Since then, the lovers have not parted.

Daria and Sergey Pynzar

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For fans of the popular television project “Dom-2”, this couple is in many ways a role model! They succeeded not only in the family, but also in their careers. Sergei Pynzar beautifully courted the blond girl: viewers all over the country watched romantic dates with flowers and gifts. Dasha did not resist and agreed to create a couple with a persistent boyfriend. The relationship turned out to be strong and has outgrown the scope of the TV show: Pynzari has been married for more than eight years and has two children.

Alexander Gradsky and Marina Kotashenko

Photo by Vadim Tarakanov / Legion-Media

You can meet people not only in the company of friends or at social events. The famous musician met his current wife literally on the street. He saw a young blonde walking along the sidewalk and drove up to her in a car. More precisely, he stopped abruptly, having already passed by, and backed off. He got out of the car and immediately admitted frankly: “I really liked you. Very! Here is my phone number, please call me.” It’s unclear how you can see your destiny from a car window in a matter of seconds in a noisy city. But since then, Alexander and Marina have not parted!

Oleg Menshikov and Anastasia Chernova

Photo by Vadim Tarakanov/PhotoXPress.ru

About my personal life the actor does not like to talk about things, but it is known that he met his fate already in adulthood, at 45 years old. The actor’s chosen one was Anastasia Chernova, who is half her age.

Oleg and Anastasia met on February 14 at a performance by Mikhail Zhvanetsky. The girl had a huge bouquet of roses in her hands, and Menshikov, in order to attract attention, began to eat flower petals. Such an unusual move could not fail to attract attention. Soon they began dating. Later they moved in together and registered a relationship. Anastasia is an actress by training, but family turned out to be much more important to her than her career.

Alina Demeeva

“Our dating story is banal to the point of indecentness: there were no accidents or mystical coincidences - we were introduced by mutual friends. First there was correspondence on the Internet, then the first meeting followed at a celebration Catholic Christmas in the club where we relaxed with classmates, and then the wonderful time of our relationship began - dates, movies, walks around the city, cafes, flowers, gifts. Six months later, I realized that I had truly fallen in love, and how happy I was when I realized that my feelings were mutual! We remember this moment as the beginning of something serious and global. A year later, we already began to think about living together. My husband (at that time he was still just my boyfriend) insisted, but I was categorically against it - my upbringing did not allow it. That's how the idea of ​​a wedding arose. Our parents supported us, and we began to prepare our wedding together.

We have been married for almost 2 years, we have been together for more than 4 years, but we still remember that evening of our first meeting and our feelings and emotions. We often remember our acquaintance and each time our story acquires more and more new details that we were previously embarrassed to tell each other. It turned out that we liked each other at first sight, and although we are very different, we can no longer imagine life without each other. Only when my beloved is nearby, I am calm and incredibly happy. Love helps us to be together in harmony and understanding."

Katerina Lebedko-Pogrebnaya

“The first time I met my now husband was at an acoustic evening dedicated to fans of the work of the group “Spleen”. I sang there, and he came as a guest. Our eyes met and I immediately liked him. However, that evening we never met. After 4 months, an acoustic evening was again held in the same place, this time dedicated to Russian rock, and I was again invited there as a performer. Imagine my surprise when I saw Him there. We met our eyes again, and to At the end of the evening we met and talked a little, but things didn’t go further than that. I left the establishment earlier, but he stayed. Later, I tried to find him on social networks, but, unfortunately, nothing worked out for me. About a month later we completely met by chance in another place. That's when I realized that it was fate! It was like this: somewhere in mid-March, my friend and I agreed to meet at a bar. It was Friday, I came to the bar before my friend, ordered myself a cocktail and in stood waiting at the bar. And suddenly He passes by! I was a little confused and continued to stand near the bar. Suddenly, someone lightly tapped me on the shoulder from behind, I turned around and saw my future husband. He was no less surprised to see me and decided to come over and say hello. We got to talking, and it turned out that he had come to a “corporate party” with his colleagues. The most amazing thing is that he came to that bar for the first time, while I was a regular customer of this establishment. That evening we exchanged phone numbers. He called me 2 days later, and from that call our romance began. And a year and a half later we got married."

Zhazira Zharbulova

“My husband and I met in a cafe on August 30, 2008. I often went there with a friend, and he, as it turned out later, had lived nearby all his life. That same day he gave me a ride home, and I understood everything. I realized that he is the one. The next day he asked me out on a date, and a day later, on September 1, he left for Russia to continue his studies at the military academy. At that time I lived from call to call, from SMS to SMS. He came 2 times a year - for summer holidays and on New Year. So two years passed. After graduation, to my great joy, he was sent to serve in Almaty. But, as it turned out, I was happy early. He disappeared from work for days. We even broke up because of this a couple of times. So another 2 years passed. And in the 5th year we finally decided that it was time to decide something. I told him that if we don't get married by September 30, 2013, we will have to separate. After all, I was already 25 years old and, as is customary in our society, it was time to think about a family. As a result, in January 2013 they put earrings on me according to Kazakh custom, in July of the same year I was betrothed, in August they first held an “uzata”, a traditional farewell to the bride, and on September 21, 2013 there was a wedding (it turns out that my husband managed to marry me before September 30th). Now we are expecting our baby!"

Tatiana Kudrina

“I sincerely believe that there are no coincidences, and when we meet our person, some mysterious voice quietly whispers to us how important this meeting is, urging us not to pass by. We need to have a very big problems with hearing, so as not to pay attention to this voice. :) Apparently, I had such problems, so I did not immediately recognize my happiness and could not even imagine that a banal story of meeting at work could develop into something big. However, let's talk about everything in order. I was organizing an office move, and my husband was a representative of the contracting company, and, accordingly, initially our conversations with him were based on topics such as contract terms, payment terms and the quality of services provided. Although, I must admit that I’m lying a little, because I really liked him at first sight. In general, when the move was successfully completed, he continued to come to my office under various pretexts, but even then we did not think about anything serious. However, gradually, step by step, we became increasingly closer friend to a friend, until we finally noticed how all doubts had disappeared, and we both realized that we wanted to be together always, all our lives."

Perhaps these very personal stories will not form the basis of a romantic film, will not touch hearts and will not cause tears of tenderness. However, they will always retain that special magic and warmth, turning into a little fairy tale for each individual family.

Dear readers, how did you first meet your loved ones?

Do you know how, for example, your grandparents met? Definitely not on a dating app! But everything is changing, and today it is easier to meet your destiny on social networks than in the nearest cafe. So what does romantic dating look like now? Here are some true stories.

“He and I worked in related industries and knew each other in absentia, because we might have had to work together. When I started Twitter, he started writing me private messages on various topics, and I started going there just to chat with him. A few weeks (and hundreds of messages) later, he invited me to a bar. And we’ve been together for three years now,” Daria, 27 years old.

“We met at school when we were both 14 years old. Mutual friends invited us to a party. He took my hand while we listened to Pink Floyd, and we never parted again. I had a boyfriend at the time, but I took Mark’s email address and added him to MSN that evening (yes, there was such a messenger). The next day the company met again, and we spent the whole day together. I admitted that I was dating a guy, but I didn’t feel happy. He replied that he would take much better care of me, and then he kissed me. I broke up with my first guy that same day, and the two of us went on a date. We’ve been together for 15 years,” Zhenya, 29 years old.

“In the apartment that my friend and I rented, there was a room for rent. He called and asked if he could see her and we immediately approved him as a tenant. Soon he came to take the keys, and we talked for several hours straight. After he left, I called my friend and told her I was on a great date. Soon we drank together and started kissing right in the bar. He admitted that after leaving with the keys he called his father and said that he had fallen in love with a neighbor and could not now rent this room. I replied that I had been abandoned so many times that now I was ready to do anything just to see him next to me. And he found himself in a trap. Forever (or until our feelings pass). So the method worked,” Alena, 24 years old.

“I literally met my husband on the road when another car crashed into my car. I slowed down at a red light and got into an accident. The husband was the first policeman to arrive on the scene. When I saw him for the first time, I thought he looked great. After being taken to the hospital, I thought we would never meet again, but he arrived the next day and began asking about the details of the accident. A couple of days later I received a letter from the insurance company. There was his email address, I began to think about writing him a letter of gratitude (and asking him to meet). After long meetings with friends and family, I finally made up my mind. It was a very funny letter, but after an endless weekend he replied and we met. The date went great, and we have been married for several years and raising a daughter. I realized that sometimes in order for everything to be good, you need to go through bad things,” - Ekaterina, 30 years old.

“We met on a social network to look for work. I wanted to find a psychotherapist for my new project, he turned out to be a suitable candidate, and we called each other via video chat. I quickly realized that the relationship went beyond work. A couple of weeks later, a conference on my topic was being held in his city, and he offered to take the next room. It turned out that we would fit perfectly in one! We have been together for five years,” - Yulia, 35 years old.

“We met on vacation, but we barely talked all week. While waiting to fly home 20 minutes apart, we started a conversation and didn’t have time to finish. Then he added me as a friend on social networks, and we started communicating every day. The first phone conversation lasted three hours, and we both noted that we had lost a whole week! The next day we met and we haven’t parted for almost three years now,” Alisa, 28 years old.

“We met four years ago when I was studying in France. I had just broken up with my boyfriend and felt terrible. I didn’t want to start a new relationship, but I needed acquaintances in a foreign country. At first we communicated on Tinder, and a week later we met. At first we were just friends and talked, I taught him Russian, he helped with French. To be honest, I liked him right away, but I was afraid to start a love relationship again. So we started dating when I went home to work. We maintained a long-distance relationship for several years, and two months ago I was offered a job in Paris, and I moved in with him. We’ll have a wedding soon!” - Diana, 26 years old.

Almost each of us has a similar experience of communication and acquaintance, and we are no exception. Therefore, today our girls decided to talk about their online dating experience. Of course, everyone could have several of them, but we tried to remember either the funniest, or the most unfortunate, or our very, very first acquaintance. After all, it was so long ago, it’s scary to remember, but it’s even more interesting!

Well, are you ready to laugh, remember and be surprised with us? Then welcome, let's begin!

The Internet appeared in my life when I was about 15. For me then it became a good assistant in communicating with people: I was always very shy, had difficulty making new acquaintances, but there were no particular problems with this online. Of course, there were many acquaintances, you can’t remember them all, but I will definitely remember one person for the rest of my life, the story of how I met now I’ll tell you :)

I used to really like the actress Scarlett Johansson, I was a member of one of her VK fan groups, and somehow I saw that one girl (let’s call her Sveta) wrote in a discussion that she had created her own group and invited people there. I joined, added photos to the albums, created several topics to bring some kind of revitalization. Sveta quickly wrote to me, thanked me for my activity and offered to become the second editor of the group, to which I agreed.

Since Sveta and I worked together, it seemed to me that it was worthwhile to communicate a little, and not just intersect in the group. And so gradually I realized that, in addition to Scarlett’s passion, we have a lot of common interests, and from completely different areas. What is the probability of meeting a person who is interested in both string theory and Mandelstam’s poetry? So it seems to me that there is none, so I considered meeting Sveta something incredible, I saw in her a kindred spirit, and from her I felt the same attitude towards myself.

Soon we started sending each other real letters and parcels, which is something incredible in our time. In the age of virtual communication, receiving a live letter, and with it a piece of a person, is priceless. With each line, Sveta became closer to me, and I happily decorated the room with her gifts.

We always dreamed of seeing her, but we lived not just in different cities, but also in different states, and being a minor did not allow us to make such trips without hindrance. But still, after several years of communication, our dream came true, I came to Svetin city. And you know, it would be better if this never happened.

In life, Sveta turned out to be completely different from what I imagined her to be. She was very quiet and taciturn, I had to start most of the conversations, although I am terribly shy... The awkward silence drove me crazy, I wanted to finish our walk around the city as soon as possible. No, Sveta is not bad, but she turned out to be too similar to me, and it’s hard for me to establish live contact with such people. During my entire stay in Sveta City, we never met again, I didn’t want to, and Sveta herself wasn’t particularly eager. After that meeting, our communication came to naught. We began to exchange exclusively congratulations on holidays, and soon we stopped doing that too...

I will probably remember Sveta forever. She became my first virtual friend, soul mate online... But after the disappointment of a real meeting, I try not to make virtual acquaintances... Or at least not to transfer them offline.

During my youth, online dating was almost the main activity of young people. ICQ, Quips, later VK and Mail RU, all sorts of different sites... But the origins of all this entertainment were phone dating (every operator had such a function on their phone). I don’t remember very well how it all worked, but the fact is that those phones had neither cameras nor the ability to exchange photos, and this foreshadowed a blind acquaintance.

My first attempts to communicate with someone only led to disappointment - someone was rude, someone wrote dirty words, someone was 3 times older (and I was in school then). Gradually, I began to think that it was time to give up on this idea and stop spending money. And then one day a boy from the city of Pushkino burst into my life.

I don’t remember at all what we talked about there, for how long, or for how long. I remember how, after several days of communication, he offered to come to Moscow and see each other. His voice was normal and his behavior was adequate. By that time, I had been traveling to Moscow for a long time to study and this did not pose any obstacle for me. We agreed to meet at the Leningradsky station and then go to the zoo. We also agreed that if I liked him, I would let him kiss him goodbye. And this will be a kind of green light for further communication. And if he doesn’t like me, he won’t kiss me. Everything seems to be clear and transparent.

He was late for the meeting. I started to get angry, because my plans did not include standing on the station square among the homeless and beggars and waiting for someone unknown.

He called when he got off the train and walked towards me, talking to me to make it easier to find me. When I finally saw him from afar, I was seized with animal horror. A man with strange huge eyes was walking towards me, his head was turned to the side, a little in profile or something. He always held her like that, I don’t know if it’s an illness or what. His feet shuffled along the ground, he almost didn’t lift them. One leg raked forward, somehow unnaturally making a semicircle in the air as he took a step. In general, this is exactly what a Hollywood movie maniac looked like in my opinion. STRANGE. A very strange guy.

I didn't know what to do. I couldn’t run away, because that would be completely miserable - we had already seen each other and talked on the phone. Instead of immediately finding an excuse to leave, I decided to behave with dignity and not offend the person. Although I was naturally scared to even be around.

In the end, I somehow managed to endure the trip to the zoo. You, of course, already guess that he did not understand that something was wrong and happily chatted with me about his own things, looking at me with his huge bulging eyes. The topics for conversation were completely flat, I could not support any of them, I assented to something, nodded, looking more at the animals in the cages than at him. It was very painful - I wanted it all to end as quickly as possible, but I couldn’t say “no” right away.

As a result, he walked me to the train and, yes, went in for a kiss. And then the unexpected happened. I was so scared that I couldn't push him away. In general, I couldn’t kiss either, and I didn’t intend to. I just stood in a stupor with my eyes closed and waited for the execution to end. After that, I silently turned around and rushed into the train like a bullet, additionally passing several cars.

This story was supposed to teach me how to say “no” more often and protect my boundaries, but I still can’t say that I have adequately mastered this skill. So, blind dating is just cruel, I don’t recommend it to anyone :)

I have a lot of positive experiences with online dating. Nowadays it is not a problem to simply friend a person whose thoughts or services are close to you or necessary. Exchange a few words, etc. How communication goes from there depends only on you.

I don't consider dating sites to be really useful. Often people come there “just to look” because they believe in their hearts that everyone on the dating site is idiots and losers, prostitutes and ugly people. And then a doubting man comes there, standing there handsome in a white coat, looking around and wincing. It is not surprising that his arrogance is noticeable and unattractive to others. Therefore, if you meet online for the purpose of a relationship, then it is better to do it on a platform that does not cause internal rejection. For example, in comments on VK or Facebook.

With so many people I communicate with in real life- I met online. These included online games, public interest groups, and even LJ. Everywhere you can find good people. True, on VK there is a high probability of running into trolling, and on FB - a bunch of pretentious conclusions. But these are costs. Filtering is not difficult if necessary.

Previously, I often met guys on the Internet, periodically went on dates, and struck up friendships. I still communicate with someone, for more than five years, but all these stories of acquaintance are so similar to each other that it’s not particularly interesting to tell. However, there is one story that I remember well. It's more like a not very funny joke that happened to me in reality.

I met a nice young man on VKontakte, we immediately found him mutual language. We corresponded online for days, then started communicating by phone. Almost from the first day we met, he began to invite me for a walk, but I refused. The guy was becoming more and more persistent every day and it scared me a little.

After a few weeks of communication, I agreed to go for a walk with him. We met in the city center and went for a walk along the embankment. It was a warm spring day, I was in a great mood, which could be ruined by just a few questions: “You don’t work anywhere, do you?” Do you want me to teach you how to make good money? Have you heard anything about *network marketing organization*?”

I was, to put it mildly, shocked by this turn of events. That is, the guy “hustled” me for several weeks to offer to sell cosmetics from the catalog?! I politely refused, but the young man continued to talk about the advantages of the work and that he had achieved unprecedented success in this matter. A couple of minutes later, my friend “unexpectedly” called me and said that she urgently needed my help. I quickly said goodbye and we never saw each other again.

I often think that if the Internet had not been invented, I would have spent my entire life sitting alone in my room. I am a 100% introvert, all these acquaintances in real life, any parties, any companies exhausted me too much, and even the prospect of being completely without friends scared me not as much as the prospect of communicating with a bunch of people.

But online everything was different. I could initiate communication myself at any time convenient for me, I could stop it at any convenient time, and I had a choice suitable people was immeasurably larger than in reality. A whole world opened up to me and I could explore it without leaving my room. The ability to be anyone online? Choose your gender, age, name, legend? It's definitely interesting and a great exercise for the mind, but I had enough of me. I just wanted conversations with like-minded people, I wanted to “find my own and calm down.”

The very first acquaintance

“Oh, God, why did I agree!” - sounded in my head when I went to this very, very first meeting. Several times I was ready to turn back and then lie something. And when it comes to planning the next meeting, lie again. Or quietly merge. Or bury yourself in the sand and sit it out. Same stranger!!! So what if we’ve been corresponding for a long time, what if the real image turns out to be so monstrous that we have to run away shooting back?! It’s strange, but I was always more afraid that I wouldn’t like a person than that he wouldn’t like me. In general, it was easier for me to jump with a parachute than to show up in that cafe and casually say: “Hello, I’m Lisa.”

Everything went very well :) The boy was almost no different from the image I had imagined. Well, adjusted for the sound of the voice, perhaps. All my subsequent million devirtualizations, the trend has hardly changed - I still can’t imagine how it’s possible to find a person when meeting who is 180 degrees different from himself in the virtual world.

Worst acquaintance

Since I am paranoid, it is impossible to drag me into reality until I have a minimum of confidence in the adequacy of my interlocutor. I will not tire of repeating that long correspondence is a good guarantee against trash in the form of various kinds of psychos and other prominent personalities. Not one hundred percent, but still. I don’t take into account the various kinds of freaks with whom I also managed to become acquainted - “inadequate” in our heads was common.

The system failed only once, but it was more of a funny incident than a terrible one. When we met, one young man confidentially told me that he kept a diary and that I was written in this diary under the name “ray of light.” Brrrrr, what vulgarity! If he had said that he was keeping records of the young ladies he had brutally killed and buried in the forest, I would not have been so shocked. While I was coming to my senses, he managed to discover a penchant for diminutive suffixes in words. The fact is that all this sunshine and cuteness makes me want to vomit rainbows, and sweetness in communication, in my opinion, kills all living things within a kilometer radius around. The bell in my head was ringing like an alarm - WTF! WTF! I still don’t know whether he was an ordinary, depressed “bright little man,” or a psychopath (I later read that they like to lisp), but the impression was more than repulsive. And, most importantly, I didn’t notice anything like that in online communication. Mystery. I hope that later he renamed me “a drop of darkness” or something like that.

Another thing that always discourages me and makes me consider meetings unsuccessful is when a person is silent. Doesn't try to keep the conversation going. Answers questions in monosyllables. He smiles, infectiously, and is silent. And we both quietly go out. Shyness? But it seems to me on the contrary - impudence. This is how I came, entertain me. Jump around. Serve emotionally. I myself am far from a communication genius, but my upbringing never allowed me to behave like that, even if the person was not particularly interesting to me. I admit that I was uninteresting, but why then write on the Internet how bad everything was and try to set up a new meeting? Mystery. Never do this, in a word, otherwise I will come and hit you on the crown with a frying pan.

The most successful acquaintance

This will be the shortest point. For a long time I doubted whether to write here about an acquaintance that ended in marriage (wedding, happiness and all that) if this marriage no longer exists. I was too young for Serious relationships, and he is too stupid for them. We played family for a bit, it was a good time. We met on ICQ based on common musical tastes.

There was also one of my loves, which is no longer there either. There is no love, the person is alive and well. But for a while I was actually happy just because he existed. And this is more luck than not.

I wasn’t very good at building any kind of relationships via the Internet, but making friends, yes. My smartest, most talented, most understanding friends who support me in difficult times are my greatest luck. And not on the scale of online dating, but on the scale of a lifetime.

In fact, there wasn’t very much online dating in my life. How many of them ended in an actual meeting? Wait a minute, let me think. One, two, maximum three. Yes, exactly, and the third was my friend, and not the young man. I don’t know why, but I never had the desire to drag virtual acquaintances into the real world. Of course, I wanted to meet someone, but different cities and countries got in the way; however, that’s a completely different story. In the meantime, I’ll tell you about my very first, not a particularly successful online acquaintance.

I met M. through contact, he was the first to write to me something quite funny, so I immediately wanted to respond, although I usually remain silent about messages from people I don’t know. Correspondence began quite quickly. M. was easy and fun to talk to; we seemed to be on the same wavelength. He started the phrase, I finished it. He joked, I joked back. In general, we were quite interested in each other. And when in another conversation M. suggested having coffee together after study, I didn’t doubt it for a minute. In addition, I had been studying his page for a long time, studying the photos and did not notice anything strange or terrible there.

Standing at the bus stop at the indicated time, I eagerly peered into the eyes of passers-by and looked out for him. M. was about ten minutes late and, as if nothing had happened, came up to me, smiled, and asked routine questions. But from the first minutes the communication went terribly wrong - there was no trace of ease. M. didn’t let me insert even a word into my monologue; he kept telling me about his hobbies. And they turned out to be great - hiking, kayaking, field conditions. He spoke with such enthusiasm about his love for camp cooking, about his like-minded friends tramping through swamps and sleeping in tents at night, that I felt uneasy - I somehow didn’t gravitate towards this kind of leisure time. By the way, he wrote absolutely nothing to me about this hobby of his online, but here he was unstoppable. This bothered me even more throughout the entire walk. Where are the jokes that won me over? Where are the common interests? Huh? But besides all this, there was also a terrible feeling of discomfort - M. turned out to be about a head shorter than me and also twice as thin. By the way, I prudently did not wear heels and at that time I wore size 42 clothes. But next to him I felt like a fat, fat, clumsy elephant. And this feeling was slowly and painfully killing me. I don’t know why I didn’t notice all this from the photographs? Mystery! Fortunately, the torture came to an end and, it seems, we were both happy about it. M. was also not delighted with me and, despite his excessive talkativeness, was a little embarrassed.

We separated. We breathed a sigh of relief. But... M. called again the next day and offered to meet. For what? - I wanted to scream into the phone, but I restrained myself and politely refused. It seems like the end of the story, but somehow it’s not! Living in the same city and having never seen each other before, we suddenly began to cross paths constantly. Wherever I went, M. was there too. And the worst thing is, he looked at me with such a look, as if, at the very least, I had ruined his life. "What did you do to him?" - friends constantly teased. “Yes, we walked down the street once and that’s it!” - I answered angrily and every time it caused a wild fit of laughter. But not for me.

From that time I realized that a real person and an online person are completely different people. They look different, speak differently and behave differently. I had no desire to experiment anymore.

When I was 16 years old, thanks to my friends, I learned about the existence of the Dating Galaxy chat room. The Internet at that time was not yet widespread, but it was already slowly gaining momentum, especially on mobile devices, so young people appreciated mobile applications such as ICQ and chats.

I didn’t have a goal to meet and start a relationship with someone, I just liked communicating with complete strangers. What I liked even more was that people who communicate well in chat also met in real life.

So, while communicating with virtual friends, I met a guy of the same age from my city. We had similar interests, and, of course, we immediately found a common language. At some point, I caught myself that this is the boy I communicate with the most, it is his appearance in the chat that I am waiting for. In general, I was almost in love, so I happily agreed to meet in real life.

But the real meeting disappointed me: from the very first second I realized that all his charm, intelligence and charisma that attracted me in the chat were feigned, and that this guy was an ordinary “show-off”. I just said a nice goodbye and left. We didn’t intersect again in the chat - apparently he didn’t like me either :)

After this meeting, I still hung out in the chat, because one failure doesn’t mean anything. I made new friends, “pulled up” my real ones... In general, “Galaxy” then occupied all of my free time(and not free, however, too). Once there was a large-scale meeting in our city, and I couldn’t miss it. At this meeting - we called them reals - I met many people I liked in person, and that alone was worth coming. There I also noticed a guy who was introduced to me as Sergei and called by his nickname. “Oh, this one...” I thought. Yes, I have already heard about him several times, exclusively from girls who really liked him. Such popular personalities were somehow not my thing, so I forgot to think about him.

But a week later it happened new meeting, for a very narrow circle of people. And it so happened that Sergei ended up there again. Then I took a closer look at him and found myself completely fascinated by him. Having already left the “real world”, I told my friend: “Oh, Dasha, I’m a fool! I think I’ve fallen in love.” But when do you fall in love, if not at 16? Maybe this story would have remained just another fleeting love, but that same evening Sergei wrote to me. Then communication, meetings, relationships began... But that's a completely different story :)

Now we are married and our daughter is growing up. Several times we met acquaintances from the “galactic” past, and you cannot imagine with what eyes they looked at us. Well, of course: they predicted only a couple of months for us, but several years have already passed. We stopped sitting in "Galaktika" almost immediately, because she had already given us the most important thing - each other.

About 12-13 years ago, the Internet was not yet so developed and the first online dating for me was SMS dating. True, the goal was somewhat different - entertainment. We have best friend there was a legend that we were twin sisters. This is how we introduced ourselves on behalf of the sisters, immediately indicating that there were two of us. The boy always had a friend on the other end of the line and after some time of communication we were offered to meet. We enthusiastically agreed. Here I must say that I am a blonde, 165 cm tall (my friend affectionately calls me “my beloved gnome”), she is a stately brunette, 180 cm tall. dad. We met the same people a couple of times, and when our heads were completely turned, we disappeared without a trace.

And only then there were acquaintances in ICQ, in chat rooms and on websites. Just like 10 years ago, I still have some kind of internal denial or barrier towards dating sites. Gradually, communication moved from the website to the phone, but as soon as I was offered a meeting, I found 1000 and 1 reasons to refuse.

Let me pick you up at the university, am I nearby?

Sorry, the pairs are already over. I was scribbling from a lecture.

Hello, I'm at your metro station. Shall we have some coffee?

Sorry, I can’t do it, I need to check on the neighbor’s hamster.

The exception happened only once. No longer a schoolgirl, but not yet a student, I met a second-year student from my department at a school. A conversation began, and one day during my studies I complained about problems with descriptive geometry. We met, my drawings were taken from me and after a while they were returned to finished form. We formed a good friendship throughout our university years. And I think this happened because none of us initially claimed each other.

I’m not one of those people whose online dating stories ended happily with a wedding, but I also have something to remember and smile at these memories.

It seems that my first “experience” of dating in virtual reality occurred when I was 14-15 years old: it’s scary to think how young I was. At that time, even ICQ was not yet popular, but various forums where you could “hang out” were very popular. Of course, all this was for fun, not for real dating– we didn’t miss an extra reason to laugh with our girlfriend. I remember that I quickly came across a man with unambiguous interests, and for this reason the “fun” quickly ended - I was not ready for all the dangers that the huge world of the Internet concealed.)))

But in the heyday of “asical” dating, I had the time of my life - as an introvert and a great shy person, it was much easier for me to meet people online and then continue communicating in reality. I would like to say that I found real friends there, with whom I still communicate, but, unfortunately, this is not the case. I met a lot of really good and interesting people, but it so happened that life took us to different shores.

Not without love stories: after a long conversation with one young man, we finally decided to exchange photos and phone numbers. I sent the photo first, after which they immediately wanted to continue closer communication with me, but after I saw the “groom” I... instantly disappeared from all radars.))) But he didn’t give me the phone number that he still had I just “go off into the sunset”: he called me all day long, without giving the phone a break, and I, the fool, of course, didn’t answer. Everything would have been fine if his attempts had not continued for a whole six months - over time, less and less, but at least once a week, he would definitely call (maybe he already had such a ritual?) Now it’s funny to remember, but then it seemed like a real problem .

Now I would like to say that after all, it was a particularly wonderful time, when it was possible to simply, without unnecessary problems, meet an interesting person, but now I would not be able to do that.

From the editor (Fleur): In fact, there are much more such acquaintances. Despite the fact that many people don’t believe in virtual love and friendship, this is the only way to get acquainted. There are different stories - funny, stupid and sad, romantic and ridiculous. But they are all united by virtual space. It’s easier there than in life - you have time to think about the answer, embellish, lie, ignore the message when the mood is at zero. And it’s also easier to disappear without explanation. Many people say that virtual networks have taken over everything and therefore, where else can you look for your soul mate and even friends. Many agree with the first part, but draw a different conclusion - sincerity remains only in the real world. You can argue endlessly. I agree with one thing: if you set out to get to know each other, you will get to know each other. True, then it will be necessary to deal with all this, but this is a second matter. Secondary.

Today we shared with you the stories of our acquaintances, and you, in turn, tell us examples of your online acquaintances. What did you remember, what surprised you? And do you believe that online relationships can become very real and real?

Just let's be honest with each other. There is no need to lie - everyone is here today.

The phrase “Your mother doesn’t need a son-in-law?” will soon be able to claim the title of a good classic tackle. Time passes, and the ways to meet a girl are becoming more sophisticated. Sometimes they amaze you with their unusualness, and you agree to drink coffee. But it happens that such things completely kill any interest, if not frighten. Our material contains several dating stories, successful and not so successful.

Mila, 25 years old

“I liked the guy’s tackle; in my opinion, he’s very talented.” I’m walking calmly down the street, and then he comes up and asks: “Girl, do you know where Ordinary Street is?” But I don’t know the city well, I just came to preparatory courses for admission. Although I had been to St. Petersburg before, I only knew the route from university to home. Naturally, I never saw this street. She apologized. She said I couldn't help. And he says: “Let me show it to you!” If I weren't in a hurry, I would definitely take a walk with him. Resourcefulness should be encouraged!

Nina, 27 years old

“Recently, a man slowed down when I was passing through a parking lot. He asked: “Girl, are there any parking spaces?” I say I'm not knowledgeable. And he’s like, “Let’s go check it out?” Brilliant, isn't it?

Valeria, 21 years old

— It was funny when my friends wanted to introduce me. Naturally, without my knowledge. We agreed that we would go to a cafe after work, and their friend came to pick me up. I got angry and sat at work for a long time, while simultaneously growling into the phone at the guys. Then she gave up and went out to the stranger. It turned out to be nothing like that: not for long, but we met. But the situation is still the same.

Inga, 24 years old

— When we met, my ex volunteered to give me a ride home. It was winter: there was porridge and ice everywhere. I get out of the car and start walking around from behind to get to the entrance. Naturally, being in heels, I stretch luxuriously on the road. And this smart guy is starting to back down. Almost ran over me!

Eva, 28 years old

— I usually came across strange invitations on a dating site. According to correspondence, the man seems okay, but when we meet, he turns out to be very strange. One was terribly boring, so much so that my teeth were hurting from boredom. I barely made it through 40 minutes. And as a farewell, he handed me his business card. Me too! The other one turned out to be scary in appearance. He was pleasant to talk to, but incredibly scary! I couldn't even look at him. Naturally, before the meeting he sent his best photo: Shot from afar and from a better angle. There was no continuation.

Marina, 19 years old

Evgeniya, 23 years old

“Once I was getting out of a minibus, before I even had time to look around, a man ran into me shouting: “I like you, you like me too!” Go!" I barely lost my legs.

What to say? Pickup craftsmanship is a strange thing. There is no ideal way to meet people. Be yourself and people will be drawn to you!