I recently moved because of work, and honestly, I’ve had to move around quite a bit throughout my life. This time I ended up in a small town literally in the middle of nowhere. I work in another town, so I have to commute there and back every day, which takes up a lot of my time. I’ve tried to find a place closer to work, but for now my budget only allows me to live here.
I also lost contact with a lot of my friends from school and university — everyone has their own life now. Some of them even moved to other countries, and a couple of them already have families.
Every time I talk about how hard it is to socialize, people always tell me the same things: “join a group”, “take a class”, “pick up a hobby.” But… it’s a small town. The options are really limited.
There are some hiking trails, and I practically know them all by heart now. I sometimes run into tourists, but everyone’s usually doing their own thing, so I rarely get to talk to anyone.
Once, I joined a local group — they seemed like nice people, and we even said we’d meet up again, but they just disappeared. I actually ran into one of them later at a friend’s barbecue, and he just gave me a quick “hey” and pretty much ignored me the rest of the night.
I feel like money is my biggest limitation right now. Everyone suggests taking classes or finding new hobbies, but between commuting, working full-time, earning just above minimum wage, and applying for better jobs (some of which require me to study for tests), I really don’t have the time or money for much else.
I live in what people here call a “bedroom town” — there’s basically nothing to do except for a few bars that are always full of the same locals.
Honestly, I just feel really lonely and have no idea how to meet people anymore.