Where to Find Your Soulmate

When I was single one of my favorite activities and a useful pastime during the super interesting and practical macroeconomics classes was to make lists with the complicity of my partners in crime (and fellow victims).
The lists could be as innocent as the Christmas presents, possible getaways for the weekend or the musthave characteristics of our future prince. Sometimes they could get a little bit more scandalous (really just a little) in which case the were scrupulously destroyed after the class.

One of our lists, however, was very insightful and of a concrete practical use. It was a statistical study of where our friends had met their boyfriend/girlfriend/date. Was it in the library? We were definitely going to spend more times borrowing and reading books. In the discoteque? Exams? Forget about them, we were the party animals of the city!
Nowadays my lists usually refer to the grocery shopping and the must-be-finished-by-the-end-of-the-day
activities but I still love statistics and I decided to investigate among my friends and narrow down the
places where people are most likely to meet their soulmate. I say soulmate because all the examples refer to couples
who are happily married, engaged or have been together for years. My sample consists of 51 couples between 25-45
years old. So here are the results:

• The absolute winner is not actually a place – most people have met through mutual friends. And in many cases it hasn’t been love at first sight. If you don’t think that there is anyone suitable in your social circle give it a second thought or act accordingly and expand it.
• Marrying your high-school/university sweetheart also makes it to the top of the list. In this case as well is not uncommon for love to cast its spell long after the last school bell.
• Spare time activities – enrolling for a TOEFL course has been the best decision in my life. This is where I met my better half after a series of happy coincidences that led me to a school on the other side of the city. This doesn’t mean that if you are looking for your soulmate you have to prepare for the TOEFL exam. Apparently salsa, yoga and photography courses are good match makers too.
• On holiday – accordingly to the TripAdvisor stats 93% of holiday romances break up and 75% are over by the time the plane has landed back in your home country. However, the discrete 7%  chance to make things work out seems to be more than enough for 5 of our friends.
• At work – the importance of work as a meeting place increases proportionally with the company’s dimensions – the bigger the better. Tip: if you are a single lady (nope, don’t put your hands up) look for a job in the oil and gas industry – your presence will be much appreciated; as for the guys the best choice would be the fashion world 🙂
• The bars and pubs are not all about quick flings. Three out of my 51 couples have started their romance over vodka sodas and loud music just to end up drinking a glass of wine in front of the priest.
• Online – oh, yeah, this is the modern love. Even the dating websites are already outdated. My prediction is that the sentence I found him by shaking my phone/swiping right will become more and more common. Tinder, WeChat, what’s next?
• At the airport – this s why you should never go to the airport looking like someone who is about to catch a 16 hours long flight.
• At the park – she was reading a book under the shadow of a banyan tree, he approached her and asked about the book’s title. Next thing you know is they have a two years old baby girl.

What about you? Where did you meet your soulmate?