A 21st Century Love Story: How One Black Woman Found Her Soulmate

Before using MELD, Jade had been navigating a barren dating scene in Kentucky. When a former college classmate suggested she download MELD, Jade was hesitant at first but eventually decided to download the app. “It’s a new day and age and you have to move with the times,” she said. “People don’t really want to admit that they use dating sites but if you want new results, you have to try new things.”

Like many, Jade had negative experiences with online dating in the past. “I’ve been on other dating sites which was one of my initial reservations about Meld,” she said. “For instance, if you see the Black People Meet commercials, you’d think there would be professional people on the site, but that’s not really my experience.” But she said she immediately saw a difference with MELD. “They build your profile off of LinkedIn and Facebook so there is a sense of legitimacy. Right off the bat, you know you have some of the same values because you’re professionals.”

Though Jade’s initial experience with MELD was positive, an acceptance to a graduate school program abroad caused her to discard the app. “I thought ‘Oh this is stupid. Who’s going to want to date me and I live in another country.’” But before she deleted the app, she matched with a man named Kevin and sent him a message not expecting anything to come from it.

After finishing a semester in graduate school, Jade returned to the United States in December for Christmas. “I thought ‘I’m home for a month. Maybe I can hang out or meet someone’ so I reloaded the app.” Turns out, Kevin had responded to the message she’d sent months ago. After connecting on MELD, the two spent hours on the phone and discovered they had something in common: Jade went to Spelman and Kevin went to Morehouse. Through phone conversations, Jade said she “learned more about his career and his goals and values. This made it okay to take it to the next level, which was to go out on a date.” The two went on their first date and to Jade’s surprise Kevin was okay with her living abroad, knowing that she was going to come back eventually. “He has been great since I’ve been traveling. Him being there has been amazing,” she said.

Within three weeks of Jade’s return to the Unites States this August, Kevin proposed to her. “The proposal was awesome,” she said with enthusiasm in her voice, “We were on a Ferris wheel in downtown Atlanta and when we got to the highest point I turned to look at the view. When I turned back around he was on his knees. It was the sweetest thing.” According to Jade, what made this proposal even more special was the customized ring. “Because my name is Jade, he got a jade stone and a pearl with two smaller diamonds. It’s a reflection of who I am and not just a cookie-cutter ring.”

While this 21st century love story might seem too good to be true, Jade explained that her relationship with Kevin has it’s ups and downs just like all relationships. “Kevin and I are so far from perfect but it’s those imperfections that create opportunities for us to get to know each other better and work through things and create what we want for ourselves,” she said.

When asked if she ever imagined finding the love of her life online, Jade admitted that her ultimate goal was to find a life partner but she didn’t necessarily expect to find him on MELD. “When we use those sites, we all want it to end well. But after a while when you have bad or awkward experiences, you don’t expect much. My goal was to get married but I didn’t really think that I would meet someone online.”

Unlike couples who met offline, Jade and Kevin were faced with the question: “How will we tell people we met?” Although online dating has become increasingly popular, dating apps are somewhat new. Though many people use them they are still slightly taboo in some circles. “We thought about how we were going to tell people we met. And we decided to be honest about it and not have any shame in it because it’s not a bad thing,” Jade said explaining that everyone who they have told has been pretty open to it. “It’s 2015, with social media and apps we meet in different ways. It’s just a new form of communication for our generation that’s consistent with the evolution of how we communicate.” And in an increasingly digital world, Jade’s story has become the new normal.

Jade’s melding days are long over, but she encourages single Black professionals who are serious about connecting with others to try it. “I highly recommend MELD, It creates a safe atmosphere knowing that you’re amongst people like yourself and the way that they pull your information from LinkedIn makes it legitimate.”

You can download Meld here.

This post is made possible by Meld. 

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