Romance Lives
Today, the dating world is ten times more complicated than it was even a decade ago. It goes way beyond sitting at a bar and eyeing someone interesting, then going up and introducing yourself. Dating has become a high-tech industry.
Source: Netzpolitik
With apps like Tinder and Bumble, you can look through thousands of profiles of men and women and decide in an instant whether or not you are interested in meeting. No more relying on friends to set you up – those days are gone.
The Old-Fashioned Way
But our Carlos Zetina did it the old school way. The University of Calgary student was having a beer at a local bar, just relaxing, on the night of September 6, 2018. It was supposed to be a night like any other. But then something happened.
Source: Buzzfeed
Zetina saw Nicole and decided she looked nice. He moved near her and casually struck up a conversation. Nicole and Carlos spoke for quite a while, just the normal banter in a bar on a weeknight.
The Evening Ends
At the end of the evening, Carlos and Nicole finished their conversation and their beer. Then Carlos, being a gentleman, helped Nicole and her friend get home. They said goodbye, but Carlos had other ideas.
Source: Pexels
Here’s where Zetina kind of flubbed his chances. He asked for Nicole’s phone number but not her last name. His intent was to follow up with her. He would have texted her the next day to get together again. But that’s not what our Carlos did, and there’s a reason why.
Gotta Find Her!
Nicole had given Zetina the wrong phone number. Then, because he didn’t know her last name, he couldn’t look her up in the student directory. Had he missed his chance? Not in today’s world of instant information and social media.
Source: Alamy
So Carlos sat down at his laptop and sent out an email to each of the “Nicoles” he found listed in the University of Calgary’s student directory. The email started out: “Hi, this is a mass email to all Nicoles.”
Carlos Mass Emails all of the Nicoles
If you were one of the almost 250 women named Nicole who was attending the University of Calgary at that time, you would have gotten this sweet and intriguing email. Little did Carlos know what he’d started.
Source: Udn
Carlos couldn’t have been more descriptive, especially mentioning that Nicole hailed from Holland. He allowed the woman to get in touch with him or ignore him. He mentioned something they’d discussed during their conversation and the fact that he helped Nicole and her friend get home.
Would the Right Nicole Respond?
Zetina was frustrated because he really wanted to get in touch with Nicole and hoped that someone would respond – either Nicole herself or another Nicole who knew her. He was angry with himself for not asking her last name and a little upset with her for giving him an incorrect phone number.
Source: Pixabay
But nothing was going to stop him. He even spelled Nicole in several different ways while doing his student directory search so that he wouldn’t miss anyone. Who knew there would be close to 250 women with that name?
Who Answered the Email?
Once the email went out into cyberspace, this story took another interesting twist. The twist happened because of the way Carlos sent out his email. He didn’t quite use proper email etiquette when emailing a big group.
Source: News.superlife
The proper etiquette when emailing a big group is to “blind copy” the recipients so they have no idea who else iis receiving the email. Instead, he just listed all the names in the “To:” field. Suddenly all of the Nicoles on campus knew about each other.
The Nicoles Group
The entire group of Nicoles who’d received Carlos’ email started messaging one another. It became a fun group with the 250 Nicoles now in touch and deciding how to respond to the original message.
Source: Tumblr
One recipient of the email was Nicole Macmillan, a master’s student in psychology at the university. “Somebody responded only to the Nicoles and the group and said, ‘Should we all tell him that we’re his Nicole, all 250 of us?’” Macmillan then told the story to the Huffington Post in September 2018. And, according to Macmillan, “it just blew up from there.”
“Nicole from Last Night”
It wasn’t long before the Nicoles group became a social media hit. Nicole DuGraye, one of the women who received the email, decided to create a Facebook group named “Nicole From Last Night.”
Source: Blog.tallyfi
The group decided to try to meet in person. One of the attendees at the get-together at a local bar was Nicolette Little, a media studies PhD student. “It was so freaky because we showed up to have a drink and we all kind of weirdly looked alike,” Little recalled. “It was really strange.”
How Did He Find Them All?
It’s not clear how Carlos managed to find the email addresses of all of the Nicoles. It must have taken him a very long time. He would have had to enter “Nicole” into the university’s database and then record each Nicole’s email address.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
This must have been a painstaking process, so it’s clear that Carlos was very determined to meet Nicole. We don’t think, however, that he knew what he was starting when he sent that email out and handed all of those women each other’s emails.
The Story Goes Viral
Photos of the Nicoles meetup were posted on social media and gained followers. People thought the story was amusing but also intriguing, and many gave credit to Carlos for being so persistent and thorough.
Source: Youtube
Speaking to INSIDER, Nicole Sparling said it was a great way to meet other women on campus, “Our focus is on showing that a huge group of girls can be friends and have a great time.”
Thanks, Carlos, for Introducing Us!
One completely unforeseen benefit of Carlos’ forgetting to get Nicole’s last name was that there was suddenly a group of 250 women who had become friends. They even noticed that some of the women looked strikingly similar.
Source: Pixabay
“It’s all about being positive and supporting one another!” Nicole Sparling continued. “We’ve been presented with a unique opportunity to be friends with over 200 fun, witty, intelligent women with the same name – who wouldn’t take advantage of that?!”
Did He Ever Find the Real Nicole?
We know that’s what you’re wondering. After all the searching, did Carlos find the real Nicole? The answer is yes! Because all of the Nicoles had created a group, Carlos’ Nicole found a way to get back to him.
Source: Aol
This Nicole didn’t actually have access to a university email address, but the group was able to work with her, and she finally contacted Zetina.
Carlos’ Error Did the Trick
If Carlos had blind-copied all of the other Nicoles on campus, the women would never have met and become fast friends. And without that group forming, the Nicole Carlos was searching for would not have found him.
Source: Udn
So Nicole wrote a lovely thank you email to the Nicole group and identified herself. It turns out that she didn’t even access her University of Calgary email inbox, that she’d never seen the email! But she still managed, through the group, to get in touch with Carlos.
Cupid Steps In
When the original Nicole contacted the group, Nicole Macmillan checked to make sure that the phone number mixup was indeed an unintended error. It was, so the Nicoles decided it was time to get these two back together.
Source: Pixabay
Speaking to the Huffington Post, Zetina reported that the Nicole he’d met that night did get in touch, and they planned to go out for coffee soon. But what’s fascinating is that the Nicole friendship circle that was created because of Zetina’s initial email is still going strong and plans to keep going, including the original Nicole.