Woman finds love through new year's resolution to eat sandwiches with strangers every week

Like many New York City residents, Katie Skare has found it hard to make friends as an adult. In an attempt to make 2022 the year she finds a remedy for this, Skare decided to start going on "sandwich dates" with total strangers across the city. The concept proved so relatable to many on social media that her videos documenting the dates went viral on TikTok, driving her number of followers to nearly 20,000. While the aim of her social experiment was to make new friends, Skare found much more than friendship through her "sandwich dates" this year.

On March 2022, Skare met her now-boyfriend, Ricky, on a sandwich date at Hanco's in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Speaking to TODAY, she explained that to schedule a sandwich date with her, those interested are required to email the address at the link in her TikTok bio. Skare then draws people's names at random from the applications she receives. When Ricky reached out, Skare revealed, his email immediately stood out to her in her very crowded inbox. "Ricky's email was very funny and charming. But I get a lot of funny and charming emails! For some reason though, it just kept popping into my head," she said.

However, wanting to be fair to all the others who'd emailed her, Skare drew names randomly and landed a date for March 2 with two women. As fate would have it, they ended up having to cancel at the last minute. For Skare, this was as good a sign as any to reach back out to Ricky. She soon discovered that they both had Minnesota area codes. "Another sign," she thought. What happened next was like something out of a Nora Ephron movie. The pair connected deeply over their bánh mì from Hanco's that they enjoyed in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Their date was such a hit that they've been dating for six months now.

"He is exactly the person for me. I feel very lucky," Skare said of her boyfriend. She admitted that although she never truly expected to find romance through her sandwich dates, she did subconsciously hope they would help her come out of her shell and face the intimidating New York dating world. "I don't think my conscious brain knew this at the time, but really a big part of this was the dating thing, too. I never wanted the TikToks to be my own personal dating show, but I wanted it to be just me getting out there and meeting more people, since I was particularly shy with dating," Skare explained.

Skare added that the sandwich dates have also helped her learn more about herself as a person. "I really made it my goal this past year to push myself and not limit myself," she said. "I've learned that I really am capable of being a social and personable person if I don't get in my own way. The anxiety is still there, but I'm much better at pushing past it."