Ready, Set, Date!

With the pressure of “ring by spring” looming over students, it is no wonder so many of them flocked to The Reber-Thomas Dining Hall at Liberty University on Feb. 14.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, the university hosted a speed dating event at The Reber-Thomas Dining Hall for students. While most people do not think of the dining hall as the most romantic place to be on the “day of love,” pink balloons were strategically placed all around to add a delicate touch to the cafeteria in an attempt to set the correct mood.

During the event, students were assigned a table where the ladies were placed on one side and the gentlemen on the other. Students were then given no more than one minute to try and make a connection with their table mate before the boys were asked to rotate while the girls remained seated.

But was love in the air, or was it just the smell of Sparky’s Cantina?

For freshman Tori Viers, spending an evening speed dating was the last thing she had on her mind. However, her plans changed after a friend signed her up for the event without her knowledge.

“Speed dating was not in the cards for me,” Viers said. “I don’t think I could have ever signed myself up for that, and if it wasn’t for my friend, I probably wouldn’t have ever done it.”

Although she was reluctant to speed date originally, Viers admitted that she was glad she went and would do it again if given the chance.

“Going into it I wasn’t really looking to meet someone special,” Viers said. “But I came out of it thinking it was really fun.”

Speed dating newbies sophomore Joey Guagliardi and freshman Cameron Brigham did not regret their decision to speed date, either.

“It was not something that I would normally do,” Guagliardi said. “But I decided that I may as well try it and just have a good time.”

While Guagliardi and Brigham both agreed that the event could be improved in some ways, they were still impressed with it as a whole.

“On a scale from 1 to 10, I would probably give my speed dating experience a 7 or 8,” Brigham said. “It was just a little too loud, and it was hard to hear what people were saying sometimes.”

While Guagliardi enjoyed himself as well, he mentioned that one minute did not feel like enough time to get to know anyone. “I wish we could have been given a little more time, but I realize they had a lot of people and they had to move quickly to get everyone through,” Guagliardi said.

Like Viers, the boys stated that they had fun doing it and would have no reservations about doing it again in future years.

But did true love find its way into the dining hall?

Viers commented that this was not the case for her as she believes it is difficult to be able to make any strong connections with people in such a short time, but that it may not be impossible for others.

“There was one guy that I thought was kind of cute, but that was it,” Viers said.

For Gaugliardi, he noted that he met a lot of really nice people, but did not feel like he was able to connect to any one of them specifically. Brigham agreed, but could not help but wonder what would have happened if things had been a little different.

“I don’t think there were any sparks for me,” Brigham said. “However if I had been able to move to the other table — who knows?”