If anyone has been through adolescence then you are probably familiar with the party game 7 minutes in the closet. For those who have been living in a closet, the game goes something like this. Usually the backdrop is a party that is unsupervised. Meaning parents are out of town. There may or may not be drinking. It starts as a game of spin the bottle then the two participants, usually reluctantly are placed in a closet or other small space for 7 whole minutes. After the 7 minutes they are released into a crowd of anxious observers who are dying to get the scoop on what happened in the closet. And what did happen? Well this is left to great debate. Some just stand in awkward silence, some giggle and chat, others go for it and kiss or make out. Sometimes you will start up a friendship with the person you’ve emerged from the closet with. Sometimes a boy/girl friend. Sometimes you will never speak to that person again.
Flash forward 15 years and you have the grown up version…8 Minute Dating!! Like its younger counterpart 7 minutes in the closet, 8 minute dating starts with pre selecting the men that are paired up with you. If this is done by a spin the bottle technique by the people who put on the event, I'm not sure. You sit across from the pre determined man for 8 minutes. And like 7 minutes in the closet, it’s strange and weird and sometimes awkward. You make small talk. You may sit in silence. You do not however kiss or make out. Score one for 7 minutes in the closet.
In the 8 minutes that you are sitting across from the person you try to determine when you walk out if you will want to be this person’s friend, or possibly girlfriend, or never speak to them again. Sound familiar? You are not in the comfort of someone’s private house. You are exposed in a restaurant or lounge at a popular restaurant or bar, where the drinks are more expensive and not as strong.
7 minutes-2, 8 minutes-0.
The range of men that you meet are way better than you get in high school and also you get plenty of time to converse with all the men and women in between the breaks at 8 minute dating events so your not limited to the guys that are set across from you at a table. All in all 8 minute dating events are a great way to meet a lot of people, both men and women in a grown up setting. And for those 8 minutes that you do get to sit across from different men, you are transported back into your youth and a friends coat closet with the awkwardness of putting your best self forward, 8 minutes at a time.
As for me, I think we should have events like 8 minute dating, but with a closet. That would be interesting and who knows what would happen with 8 minutes in a closet!!