Ok Cupid: Actually sending messages

The next day I realized that I actually had to send a message, to someone I was interested in, who was actually available. So, I looked through my matches and found myself kind of annoyed. Some of the matches were people who didn't match me at all- they lived far away or were super young or seemed only interested in partying. It seemed like OK Cupid wasn't doing such a good job of finding someone who I actually was interested in. And then I remembered that my friend had told me what words she had put in her search engine on OK Cupid and I realized that I could do that too.
I considered putting in "honest" but that seemed kind of naïve and a little broad. I also felt like maybe OK Cupid wasn't the place to find someone and imagined people at the zen center saying "Why are you looking for someone on OK Cupid? It seems like you could find someone here instead." So I decided to put in zen, instead, and it worked! Up popped a bunch of people's profiles with the word zen in them. Quite a few of them only popped up because they had read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Riding but a few others actually referenced coming to the zen center.
I was so relieved. It was so nice to see that there were people out there, who were actually on OK Cupid, who were talking about meditation, and being present, and the beauty of humanity and wanting to make a difference.... Maybe OK Cupid wasn't so bad after all.
Of course, I didn't message any of them. I was too scared to do that, especially now that I was interested in some of them. But I did put four of them into my favorites column.
The next day I looked at my list of things to do and right there, in all caps, was OK Cupid. I knew I had to do it, I had to do my three messages, so I did. I went on with the intent of just sending messages. But it was hard. I wanted to be honest, to be myself, I wanted to share my genuine interest in these people. At the same time, I wanted to be casual- it was just a message after all. In the end, I found a compromise by just imagining myself, sitting across the table from the person, and writing what I would say to them after reading their profile. I tried to make my messages brief, to simply express my interest and inquire as to their interest in a face to face meeting, and leave it at that.
And that's where I am: two messages sent (didn't get to the third) and walking away from the dart game until next weekend.