Dear Niece,
I wish you lived your early 20’s when I got to live them — in the early 2000’s in San Francisco. I wish you got to enjoy lounging and striking up random conversation in the many late night cafes that were all around town, and pretty much all of which have gone out of business.
I wish you got to go out to all the neighborhood dj bars where you could enjoy high energy dancing and eclectic music, but they are all gone now.
I wish you experienced the pre-texting world, where people would make eye contact with each other more often instead of being glued to their screens, and where you would get the rush of excitement from locking eyes with a guy, and wondering what will happen next — will he approach you and try talking to you?
I wish you experienced the excitement of pre-dating app world, where men would come up to you and try to talk to you at a bookstore, on public transportation, in cafes, etc…
I wish you experienced the romantic gesture of writing your phone number on a napkin instead of mechanically putting it in someone’s smartphone when you want to exchange information with someone you met, who you would like to see again.
I wish you experienced the anticipation of having that guy you met call you, trying to make a conversation with you, and asking you out in a real, live conversation. I wish you lived through the intriguing process of turning an awkward conversation with a stranger, while being super nervious, into romantic interaction.
I wish going out on a date today was as big of an ocassion as it used to be up until just a couple of decades ago.
I wish I could bring you to that world for just a few months, so you not only know but actually get to feel how much the world and the world of dating, love and romance have changed, and how much the emotion and the intrigue of dating has been diluted if not wiped out altogether.
