Just reflecting on life over Christmas break...

When I was 27, times were tough and I decided to ask an 'average, religious & traditional' 25 y.o. woman out for a date in a public location (e.g. restaurant), while I was back home for the holidays. Lets call her [A]. My family is part of a pretty religious community and we both know the other family's 3 generations (my generation, parents, grandparents). [A] agreed to go out with me, but she insisted that I get a female acquaintance to chaperone us for the date. The issue was, this acquaintance used to have a crush on me, but was soon getting married to another guy. The acquaintance shared that she was not comfortable chaperoning us, so in the end the date with [A] did not go ahead.

Was this a shit test? It was one of the weirdest experiences of my life. This woman was 'religious & traditional' in the sense that she can't do much housework (she ironed her father's handkerchief as his birthday present), worked an average job, went to clubs and parties etc. Really regular lifestyle besides going for religious events every week.

Fast forward, 5 years later after I graduated and found a decent job... this same woman [A] was still single and invited me to a lunch gathering with about 50-100 young men and women. I went as I had received another invitation from a 25 y.o.woman [B]. [A] played it cool when I arrived and we made about 1 minute of small talk, sitting about 7 feet apart with her cousin sitting between us. I got bored and stopped talking as it was too much effort to keep the conversation going. Then [B] arrived to the gathering and sat next to me and we chatted casually. A couple of other 20 - 25 y.o. women heard about what I was doing for my career and suddenly I was mobbed with a small crowd of younger ladies. I noticed [A] sitting silently on the couch, glancing at me occasionally.

[A] remarked as I was leaving with [B] and some other girls, "Hey, we did not have much chance to catch up today." I nodded and smiled in reply, "Yeah, it was a busy gathering, see you around."

What is your takeaway from this experience?