This is one story from HuffPost Fifty's new series "This Will Be Our Year: 15 Women Over 50 Shaking Things Up In 2015." We'll be following 15 remarkable ladies throughout the year as they make a radical change in their lives, whether it's embarking on a 500-mile hike, starting a new career or attempting to find love on the Internet. Follow each woman's story here.
Anne Seidel, 58, will be starting to online date and focusing on finding a new partner.
"My goal for this year is to try and find a loving partner, a boyfriend. I've been single for several years, but I'm ready to move forward. My husband passed away about six years ago; we were married for 30 years.
It takes a while to get over a loss like that. I had a lot of friends and family around me over the last few years, so I was hanging out with them -- I wasn't really interested in dating. Then I started dating off and on a little bit when my daughter left for college, but I never really put any effort into it. It all just kind of happened, and I really wasn't meeting a person who I was excited about. Now I've decided that meeting someone is an important goal of mine, so I've got to put effort into it.
I'm doing lots of things. I've updated my online dating profiles with new pictures and changed some of the wording. I joined Tinder and I'm on Plenty of Fish. I have also joined a 30-day matchmaker event online called 'Matchmaker Miracle.' I'm part of some meetup groups; I'm getting out in the community more; I volunteer at our local theatre. I'm doing all kinds of things.
I've been working with computers forever and I'm a very outgoing person, so I'm all over the online dating thing. It's just a fact of life these days. I quite enjoy it, really. You do have to put some work into it, but it's a heck of a lot easier than finding someone 30 years ago was. I'm hoping to find someone close to my age, someone of the same socioeconomic background and who has some of the same interests I have.
So far, I'm most excited about Tinder. I live in a small beach town, so there aren't a lot of people on it. But my experience has been good. I just joined it last week. I had my first Tinder date already, and it went very well -- he asked me out again the next day.
When you get to a place in life and there's something you really want to do, you try and make it happen. I put in my head, 'This is going to happen.' So I'm working on it and I hope it does -- that's all I can do.
I just don't feel any different than I did when I was 30. I think women need to be happy at any age they are -- embrace it, be proud of it, enjoy it. There's nothing you can't do at 50 that you could do at 30."
See some screenshots of Anne's Tinder profile:
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