Welcome Saints to the 10th annual Senior Date Lab! Originating from a series in The Washington Post, the writers of the article pair up couples to go on a date and then interview the individuals and hear about their experiences. This year, we coupled up eight seniors: Nick Lowe and Jamie Hodgkinson, Jack Bryan and Sophie Buckley, Loui Goin and Ali White, and Dimitri Criswell and Karina Constandy.
Dimitri and Karina
Our first couple featured are Dimitri Criswell and Karina Constandy. Both students indicated they wanted a very casual date and both cited their sense of humor and intelligence as positive qualities about themselves. Karina also cited one of her dealbreakers as “someone who is genuinely dumb and doesn’t try,” so setting her up with a Cum Laude scholar seemed appropriate.
Where did you decide to go for your date and how did you choose?
Dimitri: “We were originally going to go to Mia’s Italian kitchen in Old Town, but then we got there and there was too long of a wait so we went to wherever was next door. Daniel O’Connell’s Irish Restaurant & Bar.”
Karina: “I just texted him first and I was like do you have a preference for what you want to do or do you want to just like grab lunch sometime.”
Who did more of the planning?
D: “It was pretty fifty fifty, I think I said, like, oh, we could just go get lunch somewhere and she was like, all right and she threw a couple ideas out there.”
K: “Yeah pretty much. I initiated the conversation but like it didn’t really take much planning at all.”
What were some highlights or lowlights of your date? Tell us about it.
D: “I think I asked her about the violin and she complained about my dad’s class. That was kind of funny. We basically had one long conversation over lunch. We talked a lot about college and I learned a lot about the whole college process from her perspective. I don’t think there were lowlights.”
K: “We talked for a long time, cause we have a lot of shared experiences with like UVA and stuff. I don’t think I’ve spoken to him since sophomore year orchestra so that was nice. There was just a lot for us to share.”
What Assumptions or opinions did you have going in and did those change?
D: “I didn’t really have any. I hadn’t really had any classes with her in high school or anything. She seemed like a nice person and I didn’t really have any assumptions or anything.”
K: “Not really? I was somewhat worried he was gonna be quiet, but he wasn’t. I learned how much he likes baseball, even though I knew he was on the team I didn’t really view him as a sports person, but that was good to hear about the fact that he actually really enjoys it.”
How would you rate the date on a scale from 1-10?
D: “Eight”
K: “Seven”
Would you go on a second date?
D: “Yes”
K: “Yes”
Sophie and Jack
Our second featured couple is Sophie Buckley and Jack Bryan! Both couples agreed that walking outside would be a great first date, both have similar tastes in music, and both prefer tea to coffee! Let’s hear about their date:
Where did you go and what did you decide to do?
Sophie: “We went to Old town. And the decision for that was [because] it was kind of in the middle between where both of us lived…then we wanted to go out somewhere to eat because we met at 10:30. So it was like, lunchtime…So we got pizza at Emmy squared. … After we walked around to talked, we went and got ice cream”
Jack: “We went to Old Town and we walked around for a bit and we got lunch and ice cream. We got lunch at Emmy Square.”
What was the highlight of your date? Lowlight?
S: “[It] was kind of exhausting [doing most of the talking on the date] because I’m more of an introverted person. When I got home, I was like, ‘I’m dead’ and just read my book for two hours”
J: “Hanging out. When we sat outside of the town hall with ice cream.”
What is one thing you learned about the other person?
S:“I would say he also has different interests and one wouldn’t see that. One thing I learned is that he likes musicals. And some, I forget which one, it was like one I had not heard of, and it’s like an older one. I [thought] that’s interesting.”
J: “I learned a lot. She’s done a lot of very interesting stuff. She talked about how she’d been skiing and how she’d been sailing, it was very interesting. She’s in robotics and has a twin sister and I didn’t really know anything about her before.”
Were there any assumptions/opinions you had about the other person before that have changed now after going on the date?
S:“Not really.”
J: “My only perception of her was that I think she was a part of the Joy for Hospice club and I baked cookies for them one time. I thought she was kind and didn’t know much more about her.”
Rate the date on a scale of 1-10
S: “I would say that it was like a date/hangout…I don’t know, I would say like a five or six, it was pretty good. We did like a lot of walking —it was like 3.8 miles”
J:“It was like an eight, like an eight or nine. It was a good time.”
Would you go on a second date?
S:“I would say I would hang out, but I also want to bring maybe some more mutual friends so that I wouldn’t be the one carrying the conversation.”
J: “Yeah she’s done a lot of interesting things. I think it was fascinating.”
Alex and Tyler
Our next couple is Tyler Troy and Alex Jones! Alex listed her sense of humor as one of her best traits, and Tyler indicated a trait he looks for in a person is if they’re funny! Let’s see what these goofballs got up to:
Where did you go and what did you decide to do?
Alex: “We were planning on going to Halal Guys, but we ended up just going into our cafeteria because of senior assassin. Katy tried to get Tyler for senior assassin, so we ended up just going to the cafeteria, but it was really fun.”
Tyler: “At first we decided to go to Halal Guys, but as we were walking out to go, Katy Hartell was there to try to assassinate me in senior assassin so we were like okay, we can’t leave. So we stayed and ate lunch at school.”
What was the highlight of your date? Lowlight?
A: “I like the cafeteria food today, which is good, and I also just like I feel like I’m a really big talker, so I think that it was just a lot of fun to get to know Tyler better. It was kind of rushed a little bit because Tyler had to be into the performing arts thing, but yeah, probably that would be a lowlight.”
T: “The highlight would be that we talked the entire time. There was constant conversation, which is good. A low light — that we weren’t able to go out. I really wanted to go out and like to get food.”
What is one thing you learned about the other person?
A: “I didn’t know that he was going to GW, so I think it was cool because one of my cousins went there.”
T: She told me where she’s going to school, like, like college. I just forgot the name, it was like W and L.
Interviewer: No, she’s going to Franklin and Marshall.
T: Yeah, I knew it was two things, but Franklin and Marshall. She’s playing soccer there and she has no plan to rush sorority, because the soccer team is good enough for her, I guess. And that’s just really cool. She’s also like she’s a big party person, she loves, like nightlife, like stuff to be out, like having fun with her friends. And like we bonded over that, I think.”
Were there any assumptions/opinions you had about the other person before that have changed now after going on the date?
A: “I don’t think so. I never knew Tyler that well, but I always just thought he was a nice guy and kind of knew that he was more of a nice guy, but he was more outgoing than I thought. ”
T: “Not really. Alex is kind of one of the people in our grade that I never really spoke to. I didn’t have much of an opinion about her at all. Before I went on the date, I kind of asked her what she’d like to do? I didn’t ask if she was nice or not cause I could see she was nice. I briefly talked to her before, she always seemed nice. I don’t know, I don’t really assume much, but I wasn’t disappointed anyway. I thought she was very nice.”
Rate the date on a scale of 1-10
A: “Probably like a seven. If we had actually gone off campus, it probably would have been like an eight or nine.”
T: “Seven and a half and the only thing I think that could have made it better was location and time. I started to think of all these ideas of things that we could do, I was like wow, it would have been so much fun if we would have done this instead. But, you know, that’s just depending on me, so my bad.”
Would you go on a second date?
A: “Yeah”
T: “Yeah, for sure”
Ali and Loui
Our fourth featured couple is Ali White and Loui Goin! They bonded over their division III commitments, but in a heartbreaking turn of events ultimately betrayed each other in Senior Assassin.
Let’s hear about their date:
Where did you go and what did you decide to do?
Ali: “We went to Rudy’s golf, and we did mini golf.”
Loui: “We went to Rudy’s in Alexandria and did mini golf.”
What was the highlight of your date? Lowlight?
A: “The low light would be getting shot and finding out he was bribed. The highlight of my date, you know, having such a good conversation and also getting Karina to get him out, was also pretty good.”
L: “Probably just playing golf. It was pretty fun — we had some good conversations. Lowlight, getting out [of senior assassin] by Karina.”
What is one thing you learned about the other person?
A: “He wants to major in business and also Mr. Garikes’ class inspired him to maybe pursue political science in the future.”
L: “We had a lot of similarities, both playing sports in college. She’s going to college in Atlanta to play D3 soccer — I’m going to play football at a D3 level. We also had similarities with our relationship with our parents and stuff like that.
Were there any assumptions/opinions you had about the other person before that have changed now after going on the date?
A: “No, I just never really had a conversation with him before, so it was good to talk to a new Saint.”
L: “I really didn’t know her as a person before, but after the date I realized we had similarities and she’s cool to talk to.”
Rate the date on a scale of 1-10
A: “ I’d say seven. He lost a few points for getting me out of senior assassin.”
L: “I’d give it like a seven. I think it was good until I got out but it was payback for me getting her so it was fair.”
Would you go on a second date?
A: “I think we’re really great friends, but I don’t think it’s relationship vibes.”
L: “Probably not but it would be cool to hang out again.”
Jamie and Nick
Our final couple consists of Jamie Hodgkinson and Nicholas Lowe! Both of these students are confident, take French, are both night people, and enjoy going out. While their demeanors may seem different, it seems as though they had a good time. Let’s hear from them:
Where did you go and what did you decide to do?
Jamie: “Nick made the plans and we went to Il Porto in Old Town. He came and picked me up at 12 then we had a 12:30 reservation. Then he drove me home”
Nick: “We went to Il Porto Ristorante in Old Town and we decided to just have lunch.”
What was the highlight of your date? Lowlight?
J: “The highlight is definitely the planning he had, like just overall, he was very effective with what we were doing. He let me pick like whenever I was free, but then he executed the plan really well, which I thought was very impressive. Maybe [in] one of our conversations, we had like a disagreement on um one of the topics, but other than that, it was pretty much fun”
N: “It was just a good time. I say the highlight was the food was really good. We had some good conversations. The lowlight was that it was $95 but it was a good time.”
What is one thing you learned about the other person?
J: “I learned that his sister goes to UVA, I didn’t know his sister went there. He was telling me about her schooling and how she likes it and how that made him excited for college, so if that was a pretty cool equal connection.”
N: “Just kind of what she’s planning to do for college. I already know Jamie and we’re already friends so there wasn’t a lot to learn.”
Were there any assumptions/opinions you had about the other person before that have changed now after going on the date?
J: “I mean, I’m already pretty good friends with him, so I’ve known him pretty well, but maybe how he treats a woman on a date… cause I’ve known him pretty platonically. I’d say we’re still platonic, but he showed that he can put effort into a woman and possibly like a romantic relationship in the future for whoever he’s with, so I thought that was pretty cool.”
N: “Not really.”
Rate the date on a scale of 1-10
J: “I give it a 9.5, it was very good. I mean, he was on time, he was very laid out with the way he did it, and the conversation was good. There was no awkwardness at all, like we had very flowing conversations, everything was squared away, so I had a great time.”
N: “Like an eight.”
Would you go on a second date?
J: “I would go on a second date as friends, so I can always catch you up, but yeah.”
N: “Maybe just to catch up like after college.”
