Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Some dates are magical and others are pure disasters. I
would know this is Love Struck Daily, in love with
the love, love, I'm in love with you. Hello everyone,
(00:30):
my name is Jeanne Nichibali and I'm guest hosting today
on Love Struck Daily. You can recognize me from the
Netflix series Love is Blind, a social experiment that is
meant for finding your soulmate without ever seeing them and
then possibly marrying them. Or you've come across some of
my adventurers globe trotting all over I G and TikTok
all while giving you guys tips and tricks along the way.
(00:51):
We talk about fashion, bucketless items, living your life to
the fullest, overcoming obstacles, and everything in between. This week
we're talking all about dating disasters. And I am uniquely
qualified in my opinion to host because, like I mentioned
while being on Love is Blind, I actually went through
the process of falling in love with someone without seeing them,
(01:13):
getting engaged site unseen than having a wedding where I
was told no at the altar, then ran away from
my own wedding, and so much more happened after that.
But what I've come to realize through all of that
is that dating in general is really really hard, and
there is so much trial and error that you have
to go through in order to get closer and closer
(01:34):
to what you truly want and desire and need, and
sometimes you have to go through a couple of disasters
to get there. Knowing what you don't want, in my opinion,
is actually more important than knowing what you do want.
Trust me, I've done it all. So which brings me
to our guest today. You may have seen him on TikTok.
He's hilarious. If you haven't seen him, go follow him
(01:57):
right after you hear some of these incredible dating stories.
Trust me, they're a wild Please welcome Jonathan Gonzalez. I'm
so happier here. It's so nice to meet you. After
hearing about that, it relates so much to my truth
because I just need to like align my stars with yours.
(02:19):
I feel like it was all a bit of faith,
but we'll get into that. I want to know everything
about you. Give me a little bit of a rundown
because I've seen you on TikTok, but I want to
get to know you for real. So I'm like, okay,
I'm like really extroverted, but I consider myself a shy girl.
I was raised super conservative. My dad is was a pastor,
(02:39):
and like my grandpa was a pastor, and they're both Mexican.
My grandpa like literally immigrated here from Mexico to make churches.
So they were like, oh, since the pastor Louise was
a pastor, Jonathan will be a pastor. And I am
not a pastor. I'm a graphic designer that's also gay,
and so like, I guess that's my backstory, Like that's
(03:01):
where I am now. I am a designer living on Saine.
I'm out now, I'm like trying to find my footing
in a world that doesn't really understand where I am
and who I am. Well, I love that it sounds
like you're definitely carving your own path and what I
like to say veering left. So coming from like a
Hispanic family myself and not really having expectations so much
(03:25):
as like pressure, but I was like, oh, you have
to look a certain way, you have to be a
certain way, especially, yeah, act a certain way. And then
like I did this reality show where my parents will
half of my family because you know, like the THEA,
the THEO, the sister that mortifying. Yeah, like, why would
you exploit yourself? I get that. No, girl, I get it,
I get it. Complete, But you feel so good when
(03:46):
you can turn around and say, no, I've succeeded in
my own path and I'm embracing it and people are
embracing me back. And I feel like we're on that
same level for sure, because it's just so free. But
it's also a learning process. You go through a bunch
of bumps before you find the like smooth train. Oh yeah,
(04:06):
And we're here to talk about your dating stories. I
know that they're crazy and I can't wait to dive
into them. I have some of my own. But the
goal here is definitely to encourage you to make one
significant change in your dating life by the end of
the episode. So we'll see if we can do it. Okay,
I really just want to get to know what is
it that you look for in a partner and how
(04:27):
are you currently dating? Are you using apps? Or you
see you live in Austin. Austin has a great community
as what I've heard, Um, I mean it does, but
it's growing rapidly and apparently we have like a lot
of STDs here, so like we have to be careful,
all of us do. Yeah, I've lived in Atlanta, and
Atlanta is like the number one to like I'm and
(04:50):
and there's like COVID and monkey poks like I'm like,
you can message me, but if I'm going to see you,
I need to feel it. So I'm honestly, I've been
very traverted lately, and I don't I honestly don't think
you can trust anyone these days. So it definitely sounds
like you have some dating disasters to share with us.
Um I hear you have several stories for us, so
(05:12):
please please spill the tea. Well, my first like significant date,
I went on a date with like a girl that
I liked a lot in eighth grade and she happened
to be lesbian, and our first kiss my first kiss,
like my first kiss. I felt like I had lost
my virginity when I did this. She was waiting for
(05:33):
me in the bathroom because we were on a double date,
and the guy told me to go and see her.
I walked to the bathroom. We make out and then
like I asked her, I remember asking her. Am I
doing a good job? But we still got kissing even
though we were a brace face. Even though we were
a brace face. It was like all the metal parts,
it was rough. I think it's like so accurate to
(05:53):
like who I am today because it's like my first
make out session was with a lesbian girl, I'm a
gay man. Like that's really beautiful. Also, we both had braces,
and that's tragic, but it's funny, that's really beautiful. There's
so many signs, you know, you know, I was gonna say,
so this was just you trying to figure out which
(06:15):
flavor do I like? Because I was just me trying
to figure out like and I remember like feeling boobs
the first time and like squeezing them and being like,
I'm like, this is not a territory for me, Like
I'm invading a space that like with me being gay,
Like it was very black and white, Like I tried
to be straight. I tried to kiss girls, I touched boobs,
(06:39):
I touched girls, but I didn't like it. That's what
encapsulates my first date. Like it was just not it
was not romantic. It was scary. So that's good that
you get that you figured that out early on. It's
good when you can look back at it and be like, ah,
I can find the humor in it. What's your second
(06:59):
dating story? Like it is the worst day I've been one.
It was really bad because I was still coming out
(07:20):
of like post Christian college, and I was like really
excited about every guy I was meeting, so I was like,
this is the right guy. But it was like a disaster.
I was trying to find a boyfriend after moving back
to Austin, after living in Chicago for a long time
and being like at the city, I need to move
(07:41):
back to my home. I met back to Austin. I'm
talking to guys, I'm being myself. I'm being just like
super extroverted, and I'm getting ghosted. There was this one
guy who really called my eyes that was so hot.
I liked his body, I liked his interests, I liked
a conversation. But a ghosted because we started talking runt
(08:03):
in there and then he saw like he was like,
I want to see more picks. So I sent in
him a picture of like my bloody elbow. But I
was like also kind of like naked a little bit
in the picture, so it was kind of hot. But
it was like my like skinny like naked body was
like a bloody elbow because it was like the day
that the wound happened and I was like, this is
so hot. I sent it to him thinking that he
(08:25):
would like it. He goes me, he ghost me because
he thinks I'm trolling him. Then fast fold a few
weeks later, we're at the rock wall. I'm climbing with
my friends. He sees me and he's like damn, and
don't even He didn't say that, but I just saw
him looking at me, and he was like I need
(08:46):
to be seen by this boy, like he needed to
know me, so I recognize that bloody elbow. Yeah, And
he saw me at the rock wall and he was like,
oh my god, I need to know him. And then
he texted me and messaged me on tender Are you
at a BP? And I was like, yeah, I am
cleaning it up. So we met up and then we
(09:07):
started watching ephor You together as friends and then we
went on a date. So eased into it. Yeah, we
easn't because he was really Catholic. He was like not
trying to like, um, be homosexual. Yeah, So it was
like really mentally booked for me as like a homosexual
(09:31):
that's like trying to just find a cute boy. Right,
and he's still just trying to figure it out for
the first time. But all of this sounds really cute
up until the date. But because of his religion, like
with Catholicism, he was like, I don't want to touch you.
I don't want to get too close, like and I
understood that because I grew up super Christian, So I
was like, don't worry, Like we can play it all,
(09:53):
like we can be like chill, but mixed signals the
entire time. Like basically you felt like he doesn't want
the entire time until it got actually raised, until he
actually wanted me. And is that like what's giving you
the whole going through these experiences with men that like
(10:15):
didn't want to but then could and then showed that
they went against like things that they believed. And is
that why you feel like you can't trust anyone? What
what you just described as what I was going through
post college, Like that's my that was my internal battle.
And then I was cursed to find somebody who was
going through that and they're like late twenties, and so
(10:36):
it kind of like brought me back even more. But
he reminded me of like an insecure part of my past.
If that makes sense, you know, But I truly I
see that as like a really big sign of growth
from you, because you just said, well, that used to
be me years ago. Then I had to date somebody
to realize that I wasn't in that space anymore and
(10:56):
that they are. And now you're just kind of se
versions of yourself that you're like, Okay, I'm not there anymore.
I'm not in that place. You're just kind of getting
closer and closer to you, and like this is like
the point. This is like the main point I wanted
to make. When you are gay or queer or anything,
and like you are suppressed because of your family, because
(11:20):
of religion, because of anything, like, there is a massive
learning curve when it comes to like when you start
to finally embrace yourself. You're typically in your likewies, you
really do come into your own or in general, like
in your early twenties and mid twenties. It's really really
(11:41):
messy too, because maybe you've had like your first love
when you were in high school or in college, and
then you realize that, hey, maybe even though I've been
like in this patterner in this like love for so
so long, I need to figure out who I am.
And that's why so many people like break up. I
swear so many people start, you know, experimenting. I think
(12:02):
that age between like you're beginning to mid twenties is
so incredibly messy, like what you said and just confused.
People are complex, like they have trauma, they have random
ship that happens to them. And it's not like you
can just like throw yourself into an app and find
your man or just like go to a college to
(12:25):
find your boy. Like, no, it's not. It's never going
to be like that. You have to It's a process
of unlearning, to relearn to find the person that will
love you for processing the things that you had to
like let go. Yeah, so we have some ideas about
(12:48):
how we can get you into this new stage. Um,
and so do you have a dating profile currently? I do,
Like I'm literally on all the apps and I'm even
on Rya. So what's on your app currently? What type
of men are you attracting with your profile? Guys that
(13:09):
just want more Instagram followers? I feel like, do you
have your socials on there? I do, but I don't
feel like men these days really want to settle down,
especially with within my age realm, Like I feel like
they are just kind of like vibing and they really
don't want to like be seriously traditional or like. So
(13:32):
maybe do you go to these places that you can
find men that have like interest Like, for example, what's
a cute place that you like to go visit that
you can meet someone in person because technology feels like
it's not really working for us. Probably Lady Bird Lake.
It's like where it's where people are not to go
(13:52):
powder boring, Like everybody goes there, like there's a bunch
of hotties. Also Barton Springs Art and Springs. Oh, I'm like, dang,
like people in this city be showing body that's nice
that takes three steps away from figuring it out later on.
(14:12):
So do you go onto any solo dates I have
in the past? You have so one thing that I
really loved doing um was going to when I was single,
going to places by myself that I knew I liked
because if I like them and other people are there,
they're going to like him too and we're going to
have similar interests. But what I would do is I
would literally just go post up at a bar like
(14:34):
by myself or take myself at like a nice little date,
so like picnic on the in the park or by
Barton Springs, take my little dog, or grab like a
nice book blossom music and you literally attract these people
like honey and bees like. It's literally just good vibes
(14:55):
equals good vibes. So that's how not mama, Okay, yeah,
I us this advice. This is good your energy and
the things that like you give out, and you know,
the more growth that you do with yourself while you're
trying to find your person, you're ultimately going to find
your literal soulmate. And it's because you became your own
(15:15):
soulmate first. You can really do anything that you want
and find the person that wants to do them with you.
So that's my two sets. Beautiful. Now that was beautiful.
I need to hear that. Oh that that's good. That
makes me happy. Well, these dating disasters, we're hopefully while
(15:37):
they're a think of the past, and we might encounter
some more in the future, but don't ever let them
stop you from figuring out you know who you are
and your love and what the love it is that
you deserve. I had such a great time talking to
you today, getting to know each other on such deep
levels and having a good left to Thank you so
much for joining us on love Struck Daily. So before
(15:58):
we head out, please let everyone know where they can
find you online. You can find me at John Gonzales
on Instagram and then on TikTok. I'm John Zales j
O n z l a e zy z choosies from TikTok.
I can't wait to see what you keep doing on
your TikTok stop. Thank you. No, you really inspired me
(16:20):
to like just talk about what I've been through and
I'm I'm honored and this this was a big honor
for me, So thank you. That was so much fun
listening to his stories. If you have a love story
to share, any questions or thoughts, send an email to
love Struck Daily at frolic dot media and follow us
(16:42):
on Instagram and Twitter. There are so many fun updates
on there if you want to follow me, My Instagram
and TikTok are both. My name Giannina Jibelli g I
A and and I n A g I B E
L L I and I do share fun updates all
my life, relationship advice, all that good stuff. I'm currently
on a new show called All Star Shore on Paramount
(17:04):
Plus and Prime Video if you want to check it out.
There's lots of messy, fun, drama and relationships that pop up.
So that's all Star Shore and Genia Gablli. You can't
wait to see you guys again. Our researcher is Jesse
Epstein and our editor is Jen Jacobs. We're produced by
Abigail Steckler with Little Scorpions Studios were executive produced by
(17:24):
Frolic Media. This is an iHeart Radio podcast, wishing y'all
a very happily ever after. I'm in love with the love,
Love Love, I'm in love with you. I'm in love
(17:50):
with you.