“Mom, I think I’ve met a girl I’d like to date.” This was what my son Ryyan called to tell me?
Ryyan was 28, a senior in college. He’d served in the Army, including a deployment to Iraq, before enrolling at Georgia Tech at age 23. He was about to graduate with a degree in computer science.
He hadn’t been on a single date his entire time in college. “Too much homework, Mom!” he said. I didn’t want him becoming one of those permanent bachelor computer programmers, but Ryyan needed to focus on his studies. I helped out by doing his laundry, cooking and freezing healthy meals for him and running errands whenever I made it over to Atlanta from the Sparta farmhouse where my husband, Mark, and I lived.
Ryyan and I made a good team. Why would he want to distract himself so close to the finish line?
“A girl, huh?” I said. “Where’d you meet her?”
“A dating app.”
“You mean online? Where you meet strangers?”
“Mom, they
