In an age when young people seek connections through a phone screen, an Australian woman decided to take a risk after becoming infatuated with a man on her flight.
Of all the passengers on her Virgin Australia flight, Isabella Duric was drawn to a “cute guy” in the row behind her.
“My friend said, ‘I found your airport crush’ and he pointed to the guy behind us,” Isabella told news.com.au after going viral.
Image credits: isabelladuric_
“I told the girls about it in a Snapchat and said, ‘Imagine I send a note to the guy,’ and they dared me to do it.”
Isabella didn’t know if the stranger wearing a white cap on her flight from Sydney to Melbourne was in a relationship. Still, she decided to accept the dare.
In her video, the 23-year-old flyer shared the love note she wrote for her crush, which read, “Hey, add my number,” along with her Instagram handle and Snapchat. She signed it with her name and, in brackets, specified “blonde” so he could identify her.
Image credits: belleduric
“I thought it was the perfect opportunity to shoot my shot. I decided to go all in and create a letter that would catch his eye. However, the execution turned into a comically embarrassing moment,” Isabella admitted.
The scrunched-up note ended up bouncing off the man’s window and landing near his seat.
“He thought it was for someone else and didn’t read it,” Isabella explained.
Image credits: isabelladuric_
“The looming second-hand embarrassment washed over me when he didn’t even glance at the letter we had thrown his way. It was one of those cringe moments where you just wish you could disappear from the situation.”
But Isabella did not give up. Using a bright yellow font, she and her friends wrote “OPEN THE NOTE” on one of their phones and showed the message to the young man.
On social media, the young woman revealed that the message was successful and shared the text she received from her mystery crush.
Image credits: belleduric
“Hey Isabella, I’m Lachie the dude you threw a note at haha how are you. Didn’t have internet on the plane to add you unfortunately,” the man explained.
Isabella apologized for “being annoying,” to which Lachie replied, “Nah, you’re fine.”
In the comments on her TikTok video, everyone asked Isabella for updates and applauded her for taking the risk.
“This is so iconic,” one user wrote.
“I’m gonna need to read the rest of the book,” said someone else.
Even Virgin Australia joined the discussion, commenting, “We’re on the edge of our seats.”
Image credits: isabelladuric_
The Australian pair continued talking for days, asking each other about work and university. Over time, they stopped communicating. Though their interactions didn’t blossom into a romantic connection, Isabella does not regret her spontaneous move.
“Everything is meant to happen for a reason and it was also a bit of a running joke (about my airport crushes) – and I am seeing someone else now,” she said.
The influencer called the experience a “lighthearted reminder of the risks we take in the name of love or attraction, especially in close quarters like an airplane.”
Image credits: belleduric
“I think it’s the mystery behind who they are, where they are going. And holiday romances are such a big thing now too,” she said.
According to a survey conducted by the Institute for Family Studies, more than one-third of young adults (people aged 35 and younger) met their partner online.
The study, which involved 2,600 respondents, also found that men are much more likely than women to say they asked for the first date.
Image credits: belleduric
A separate study conducted by OKCupid among 70,000 users of the dating app found that women who make the first move online are more likely to receive a response than men who send the first message.
The same pattern applies to first dates, suggesting that women should take the initiative more often. About 12% of first messages men send turn into a date, while 30% of women’s first messages end up in a date, the site noted.
Image credits: isabelladuric_
Beyond dating app statistics, one thing is certain for young adults trying to find love in the digital age: they would prefer to meet their partner in person.
A Forbes Health/OnePoll survey revealed that swiping is leading to fatigue. 79% of Gen Z and 80% of millennials reported feeling burned out by dating apps.
The biggest reason, according to Forbes, is the inability to find a meaningful connection—an explanation given by 40% of all respondents.
Image credits: isabelladuric_
This is followed by being disappointed by people (35%), feeling rejected (27%), having repetitive conversations while chatting with multiple matches (24%), swiping (22%), and simply the time spent on the apps (21%).
Others pointed to the pressure to appear a certain way, while another group said they felt fatigued by maintaining profiles on multiple dating apps.
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