Finding Love in Toronto – An Event in Review

Last updated on March 21st, 2021 at 02:08 am

Thursday night had a lot going on. Between NatandMarie’s chat for Social Media Week Toronto and the Love a Heart not-so-silent auction, a lot was happening in our fair city. And yet, I found myself in a room full of single urbanites who had perhaps, up until that point, been looking for love in all the wrong places.

Yes, on that Thursday night, I had enrolled to attend the York Real Life Series: Dating & Relationships. For those who don’t know (and I don’t know why you wouldn’t—it’s on my LinkedIn), York University is my alma mater, and one thing their alumni association does is try to give their former students the opportunity to explore and enhance their life skills outside of just what they might have learned through academia.

A friend of mine attended a session on wine and cheese pairing. They have one coming up in March on how one can better understand real estate. But, in a very interesting fashion, it would appear that I was the only one in the room in a relationship, on this Thursday night, learning about dating and relationships. (How do I know? Susan Blackburn — the speaker —asked for a show of hands of who might already be in a relationship—guess who was the only one to put their hand up?)

Now, when you’ve been spending time listening to speeches by the likes of Gary Vaynerchuk and attending tweetups with a whole slew of massively extraverted personalities, the pace of this event would’ve caught you off guard, too!

Susan is a very strong speaker; her style is more of a casual, friendly chat to the audience, really giving them the opportunity to express opinions and answer questions. She acted openly and honestly, letting others relate with herself and her experiences in order to let them know that they weren’t alone.

The talk itself was structured into a series of five essential steps in order to best prepare oneself for the mysterious world of the relationship. I’ll go over them briefly—Susan’s talk had far more content and interaction, and I hear that they’ll be posting the video in about a month, so keep an eye out for it.

So we had:

• Happiness through Authenticity—being authentic will give you the clarity and confidence you need to interact with others
• Energy—we all have it and need it to interact with others; there are female and male energies
• Assert Yourself—be able to speak your mind honestly in a relationship otherwise you will be doing yourself an injustice
• Recognize that You Are More Than Your Behaviours—if you are shy, insecure or stubborn, that’s not who you are; that’s simply one of the ways in which you act. You need to recognize that you are not simply a by-product of your behaviours
• Test Your Comfort Zone—by forever staying within your comfort zone, you will never grow as an individual; you need to constantly test your abilities

Five very straightforward concepts, but they should help you get along the way.

Turns out that my brother’s girlfriend was at the event with me and we just found out when I met her for the first time. Good thing I behaved myself!

Aside from that, the crowd was interesting. I can definitely say that it was more of a subdued vibe, with only a handful of people participating out of the odd hundred there. After the talk, things started to resemble a Grade 8 dance, with the boys off to the wall (or the bar, in this case) and the ladies huddling in groups across the rest of the room, conversing away. For those who did brave the divide, I applaud you!

Here’s proof that I was getting involved in the dialogue: