My Farewell on Coupled

Never did I think I would be on television, let alone a dating show. However, I have had the opportunity to be a cast member of Mark Burnett’s new dating show called Coupledthat airs every Tuesday at 9PM on Fox and it truly was the most unique experience in my life.

Dropping my life and leaving my business for this was a very hard decision but luckily I have an amazing support system that stepped in to help out in any way they could while I was gone. I am not one who invests a ton of time into my dating life but I really wanted to take this time to do so. As an entrepreneur, I naturally like to “do life” differently and I don’t think dating is an exception. My thought process was that it takes a lot of balls to put yourself out there on national tv to give love a shot and I want to find someone who is willing to take that kind of risk. I always said when I was growing up that I wanted to meet my partner as I was in the process of growing my business and part of me still hopes that will happen. Even though I didn’t couple up with any of them, I will say that each of them were very genuine and just really great guys.

Coupled was filmed in Anguilla so I essentially lived in a different country with 11 other women I’ve never met before to date random guys in the hopes of finding love…. yes it sounds crazy, I know. This opportunity definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone but I don’t regret any bit of it. All 11 of the girls I got to meet I admire in one way or another despite how much time we spent together. We all might not be friends naturally in real life but we will always share this unique experience. The guys we never get to interact much with them, at least not the single ladies, so I didn’t establish too many ties with them.

We filmed around the clock for a period of time in the winter so naturally there is a LOT of footage that was captured and never shown. Despite what made it to the screen, many of my feelings were resurfaced as I re-lived my experience on Coupled from a tv screen these past weeks.

The latest episode (episode 8) in particular brought back emotions that I had during filming. I’ll admit that I am a complete hopeless romantic so in all honesty I thought I was going to find my “prince charming” on this show. However, as we saw on Tuesday, this was not the case. I never am one who gets selected for opportunities like this so when I got the call from Fox, I just thought it was fate. And maybe it was, just not fate in regards to my love life.

Before this show I didn’t make my love life a priority and have been solely focused on my business, family and friends. I thought this opportunity would be my answer but I ended up arriving and leaving the island single. And hey, I am all about embracing the single life and I am so happy with my life currently but I honestly was really disappointed. I felt like a failure.

It’s not easy to wake up every day, get ready, and open yourself up to a new man in the hopes of him being the one. I had to do this for 10 guys so I cannot imagine what it’s like for those who do that every single weekend, so much respect to those who do! By the 10th guy I was drained of my emotions and energy and knew my man was not on this island. However, this whole experience taught me a lot about myself, what I want and need in a partner, and to be excited to be more proactive in my dating life back in NYC.

During the filming I would reassure some of my coupled gals that we cannot start questioning ourselves when we were or were not picked. However, towards the end of this process I began to start questioning myself and wondered if there was something wrong with me. That’s not something I normally do but when you’re only focusing on one part of your life for over a month it becomes unavoidable. Luckily, I quickly stopped myself from going down this dark, vicious path of thinking and turned it into reflecting on how much I’ve learned and how pride of myself I am. It’s hard staying true to yourself in these intense environments but I always said that I wanted to leave this experience being able to look myself in the mirror and be happy with who I am. I have very high standards which can be frustrating at times but I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all. I know what I want and I know when I see it. I refused to lower my standards because I was on a show and won’t settle now that I am back home and still single. I stayed true to myself, my values, and kept my head up high knowing that one day I will find my Mr. Right.

Thank you to each and every person who has tuned in to watch Coupled each week or have attended one of my viewings parties or have reached out to connect via social media. Having the ability to connect with people I haven’t seen or spoken to in a long time was the best part of being on this show. Thank you again #TeamBLo!!

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Xo

B.Lo