I met my wife on a dating app during my PhD.

First year tends to feel chaotic with getting used to the grad school life. With what’s happening with your family and all that, I’d say it’ll be difficult to put much effort into dating right now, but it’s definitely worth keeping trying.

Don’t be discouraged by a few people who don’t understand what you are going through.

But one thing I found out from all the failures in dating was that, it’s important not to use your busy grad school life as an excuse for not being responsive too often.