Alone in a New City

Have you ever moved to a new city without knowing anyone, and found yourself unsure of how to meet new people and network? Matt Pearce has a really great essay in The Pitch about his quest to make new friends in Kansas City — a very difficult task considering that Kansas City doesn’t really have a big urban center where people go to meet each other, and was ranked dead last in a list for the number of single people in the 40 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S.

In search of friends to hang out with, Matt turns to Craigslist. Here’s one of the more depressing ads:

Months later, one ad still stands out to me: “Married soldier here in need of friends, I came back from overseas and everything is different nothing is the same at home and with friends,” the post read. “Lots of my friends wont talk to me anymore, due to their views of my job and why i had to go. My best friend hates my guts, my wife cant stand me sometimes I just need some one to chat on here or meet for lunch once in a while.”

I messaged him. He never wrote back.

Matt does find a few people to hang out with, but he never really clicks with any of them — much like what happens with online dating. Eventually, he does a thing to help contribute to the low number of singles in Kansas City: He moves.

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