In 2018, romance can be just a swipe away. Be warned though: A mistaken swipe in the wrong direction could make love disappear just as quickly as it digitally appeared.
That's what a college freshman in Missouri discovered after inadvertently swiping left instead of right on the popular dating app Tinder.
The smartphone app lets users swipe their way through potential dates, left for the ones that aren't worth your time and right for those you'd like to get to know better. If both users flick in the same direction, they are dropped into a one-on-one text conversation to talk more.
The freshman in Springfield, Missouri says he made the rookie mistake of giving a potential brunette match a swipe to the left instead of to the right.
Left Swipe but Not Forgotten
The Missouri State University student was not content with losing what could have been, though. He decided to take measures into his own hands and set out on a real-life search for what some on social media have dubbed his "Tinderella".
All he had to go on was the girl's first name (Claudia), his memory of a few photos in her profile and the knowledge that she was a fellow Missouri State Bear. He also recalled that she was a bit of a rebel, even though her profile said she was 20-years-old her bio revealed she was actually 18.
Armed with few clues, his search began. The 18-year-old student took a bold step and sent an email to every "Claudia" that he could find an email address for on the Missouri State database.
He laid out his case in candid terms, telling them "I made a rookie mistake on Tinder".
As he explained how a swipe had separated him from what could have been, he asked his mystery Claudia to reply simply with "right" or "left" to let him know if she would have returned the gesture on the dating app.
If it was a right swipe (that's the good one), he suggested they could go out to grab some doughnuts. Sounds like a pretty good offer.
A match made on touchscreens?
Fast-forward to Twitter and the real Claudia revealed herself to the world with a tweet that gave us the full details of the freshman's message as well as a screenshot of her Tinder bio to prove that she was indeed the Claudia he had been searching for.
THIS GUY LITERALLY EMAILED EVERY CLAUDIA AT MISSOURI STATE TO FIND ME ON TINDER pic.twitter.com/x8tQuYmj8Q
— Claud (@claudiaaIIey) January 20, 2018
Her tweet has racked up more than 27,000 retweets and over 159,000 likes. Claudia Alley, a Missouri State freshman was the student that was the intended recipient of the campus-wide email.
The Jefferson City native tells the News-Leader her mom found out after hearing about the viral story on a hometown radio station.
The story quickly gained national attention as other college humor websites, and eventually, mainstream digital websites picked up the match-making a story.
A local clothing store even made t-shirts to commemorate the search. Five Pound Apparel quickly tweeted out t-shirts in Missouri State colors that said "I'll Be Your Claudia".
If you know... you know. And if you wanna hit homeruns, you have to swing the bat! First date is on us! @claudiaaIIey @HaydenMoll pic.twitter.com/Pe5omiD3KL
— Five Pound Apparel (@5poundapparel) January 22, 2018
The freshman has changed his Twitter bio to "so I emailed a few Claudias" while Claudia's now reads "check your email often."
The real question remaining now that the two have been connected in real-life is whether the promised doughnut date will take place.
Alley tells the local newspaper it is in the works for later this week.
