Excuse my French. Sorry, but that's how we currently feel about the good 'ole "Monroe Funroe." Really, it's our frustration coming out after so many months of living here and feeling like the area has little to nothing for a young professional couple such as ourselves.
As you all know, Alex and I moved to this area without any real connection to it. For him, it was a step up professionally, and at a good time personally. For me, it wasn't necessarily a choice, but one that had its promises. Promises to bring us together forever, and promises to put me closer to home without putting me too far from my "home away from home." For us, it was an answered prayer.
However, to grow as a couple and flourish as individuals, we really do need the city we live in to be more than just a place to lay our heads at night. We need to feel like this house, this neighborhood, and this city is "home," even if just for a season. There needs to be some sort of tie to the community and it's people. To put it simply, we need to have a life here.
For months, we have tried to make Monroe our home. When I say we have tried, I mean we.have.tried. We've made efforts to turn acquaintances into friends by asking them over to our home, trying to coordinate outings, and even eluding to interest in their existing plans with others. When we ran out of options with people we may have known previously, we looked to coworkers, and even tried to find outside groups to join in hopes of finding success there.
At this point, we feel like we've exhausted our options. Co-workers, neighbors, church, and community recreation (sports) leagues have not panned out like we hoped they would. We continue to rack our brains for new and creative ideas in trying to meet people, yet we keep coming up short. Just today, Alex told me he's ready to give up because people always seem to bail on us or our efforts fall short no matter what we do.
I'm worried that we'll "check out" eventually and then become more jaded about this area than we already are. Truthfully, we miss our friends and while it's nice to be in touch with those we love, it's not the same for them to be so far away when all we really want to do is have a (guys) poker night or (girls) sleepover. In fact, the other day, I inadvertantly found myself in touchy waters when trying to have a nice girl-talk conversation with someone whom I probably haven't earned that level of friendship-status. (Yeah, it wasn't pretty. Insert foot in mouth...)
So anyway, instead of a pitty party, I plead for help, blog-readers. Please offer your suggestions or tips for meeting and making friends in new places. It might be helpful to note that this city doesn't offer community recreation leagues (can you believe that?!), nor does our church have any sort of group for young adults. Like I said, we tried. ...So yeah, what's a girl (and guy) to do?
-Lauren
4 comments:
Awwww, that's such a bummer. I wish I had some good advice :/ Maybe hang out at the park or some other public place to scout out other young adults? I don't know!
You could also use this as an opportunity to start your own young adult group at your church, perhaps. Something to consider...
Or just move by me! Lol. That's my solution ;)
We joined the local gym about two weeks ago since we found out it was free through Alex's work. It's unlikely we'll meet or make friends there, but at least we have something else to keep us busy. Can't wait for your visit!
I totally get this. I'm worried that I'm just going to be constantly leaving on weekends when I don't have to work. I live in such a small place and ok so I've only been there a week, but I've yet to meet anyone my age. To give you an idea, there is a gym 20 minutes away. The closest Wal-Mart is in the next county.
Christy, I've gotten a lot of feedback from other 20-somethings and it seems this is just part of the deal unfortunately. No one warns you about it though. :-/
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