Today, May 26, 2050, is the tenth anniversary of the creation of my app.
It is incredible how quickly time has passed. It all started just 10 years ago during a conversation with my friends. We were only 30 years old then, and we were talking about how we were approaching the age our parents were when they had us. It was amazing for us to think that at that time it was so obvious that family would consist of two biological parents and their children. We had just bought a house together for all five of us. We didn’t feel ready or, rather, we weren’t attracted to the idea of living only with our partners. Some of us wanted to live in separate houses from our partners and considered our cohabitation more ‘family.’ At that time, the government was starting to explore the possibilities of making polyamorous marriages civilly recognized. All these small changes we were reflecting on, plus a few glasses of wine, culminated in: today’s dating apps are no longer suitable for new types of relationships.
From there, we moved quickly within a few months. We began to pitch our idea to app developers and investors. It wasn’t easy at first because the change was only felt by the younger generation. Fortunately, one day we found people who believed in us, individuals similar to us and in the same situation.
What we were proposing was an application both for meeting romantic partners and for connecting with existing communities/families. Additionally, each person’s profile also displayed their ‘family’ or ‘close circle’ (as it was still called at that time). The various possibilities of connections and relationships increased the variables so much that it required many months of work, and even today we continue to update the app algorithm based on new relational discoveries.
Incredibly, the app was a huge success just one year after its launch, even though people initially hid their usage of it. Only today I can finally say that people are completely open to the idea of these unconventional families. It has been exciting to see how people have gradually used the app more and more, taking its use even further. We have received multiple emails about group weddings (unfortunately not yet official) to celebrate the union of a household. We are thinking of starting to invest in the real estate market or supporting some designers/architects in creating projects for the homes of these families. Many of them end up renting an entire apartment building, but it would be nice if there was housing designed specifically for them.
I myself, as the creator, serve as good publicity for the app. My life partners and I have ‘officialized’ our family for five years now. Initially, we were six, but Emily decided to leave after a few years because she felt the need to live only with her romantic partner. We are still in touch, of course, and we support her in her marriage without hard feelings. As for the others—Sam, Marco, Julie, and Kate—I can’t put into words how much they mean to me.
These people have managed to beautifully transform my concept of family in five years and give me everything my parents never could. They have healed so many wounds in me and taught me concepts like respect and pure affection without ulterior motives. Sam and Julie are trying to have a baby, and I can’t wait to see how our relationship evolves with this new addition to the family.
Besides the emotional aspect, there are various practical benefits of this type of relationship that have encouraged many people to use our app. We share all responsibilities equally, which makes all the chores much easier. We can visit each other in the hospital when in the past only official relatives were allowed. We share the expenses of the house and, in this case, the costs of an upcoming baby. When there is a problem, there are five different points of view with ideas to solve it. The list is truly endless.
I really hope this wave of love and luck continues. I want to work so that other people can have the family that I have.
