It all started about 3 weeks ago when my roommate saw this flyer on Instagram:
My roommate told me there was an event where I could get Hydro Flask for free. To me this was a surprise because a regular Hydro Flask costs around $30-60 so to me this was a great deal, so I asked what this event was and he said a matchmaker event, where they would pair you with someone based on how you answered the questions on their survey. After hearing that my decision changed to NO. Feeling as though he could convince me, my roommate decided to open up the survey, fill it out, and leave it for me to submit when I came back from class later that same day. I however, was not amused and closed out of that tab. The following day, my roommate asked me if I submitted the survey to which I said no. Looking back, he was probably getting annoyed with me because he then took to our friends back in Eastvale saying “Ay yall gotta convince josh to do this”. Luckily there were still some friends that would take my side in this issue because a number of them were arguing that the free stuff needs to be like “a PS4/Korean BBQ/Monster Hunter World all in one to bait josh” while others took my roommate’s side. It was at this point where I learned that my roommate was planning to redo the survey and rather than wait for me to hit submit, hit submit for me. Then, he noted that I would HAVE to go since I was going to be paired with someone apparently and it would be rude to leave them standing. Upon learning of this plan, I promptly changed the password to my computer (before this event, he knew my computer’s password to gain access to my sound system).
The next day he asked me that if one of our mutual friends thought it was a good idea for me to go would I? I agreed having complete faith that our mutual friend, Brendon, would take my side in this argument and I would not have to sign up just to help my roommate get a Hydro Flask. This was my critical mistake because when he called up Brendon, I swear that he must’ve bribed him beforehand or something because Brendon betrayed my trust in him and told us that he also thought that I should sign up for the matchmaker event. Jokingly I told him that he was the one that was supposed to destroy the dark side not join it. Brendon responded by saying “Hey, you never know you could meet the one.” To which I told him to get out of my room. Now backed into a corner, I played my final card to attempt and get a positive outcome from this argument. I told the two of them “I’ll do it later” with no actual intent to do it. I almost got away with it but Brendon and my roommate knew me for too long and knew that I wouldn’t do it so they just sat there, staring at me, and said, “We’re not leaving until you sign up for this.” Defeated I gave them my word that I would sign up for it before the sign-up window closed and went back to whatever I was doing before my roommate brought Brendon up to my room.
That weekend, I went home and signed up for the matchmaker event since I gave my word to both of them. So at this point the survey consisted of basic questions like:
What are some hobbies/interests of yours?
Music Genres?
Major?
Additional Comments?
After filling it out I just submitted it and waited.
On the day of the event, I had to ask my Resident Adviser where the Conejo Suite was since I never been there. Upon learning of its location I made my way over and found that rather than the matchmaker event as I was expecting, the poster in the window said Mesa Court Social. Confused, I waited until a little later to go in (since I was still early). When I did walk in, there was only one other person in the entire room and somehow her color under her name tag (which was just a piece of tape with your name and a color) matched mine so I walked over and tried to strike up a conversation while waiting for my roommate to arrive. As the social event went on it was getting obvious that there was no sort of matchmaking being made so I just strolled over to my roommate and dorm members and just sat with them for most of the night. While there was hot chocolate and doughnut holes, there was no stirring straws to mix the hot chocolate so I just kinda had to wait it out. That night, I ended up meeting the Vice President of the Mesa Court Council who seemed like the kind of person who would have that position in my opinion. He was super sociable and upbeat about anything and everything, these attributes mixed with the fact that I ended up sitting next to him made it so that I was constantly in a conversation. While talking to the VP I noted that many of the people are only here for the Hydro Flask, much like my roommate. He agreed and realized that he should distribute the two Hydro Flasks that they bought at the middle and end of the event to ensure that people will stay. I told him that was a great idea to make people stay but I was hoping he wouldn’t execute on that plan because that would mean I had to stay the whole event to try and get the Hydro Flask that my roommate wanted. It was soon approaching time to give out the first Hydro Flask and the conditions to be entered to win were that you must have signed up on the survey. So this was the time to try and pray to whatever lucky symbol I had so that I could win the Hydro Flask, but much like my plans on the weekends, nothing happened. So I stuck around until the end of the event in hopes of winning the second one and when that time came the conditions were that you had to have walked into the event. Personally I thought this was a ridiculous idea since the whole event was supposed to be based on the Google Forms surveys so I was slightly annoyed but to those of you who won the Hydro Flasks, congratulations.
So, did the event meet my expectations? No in fact it should have been called what it was a social, not a matchmaking event. Did I find it fun and useful? It was definitely fun but I don’t enjoy being told one thing and ending up attending something completely different. Regardless, it looks like its going to be another Valentines full of ice cream for me.
Zot On!
-Josh
