I have been renting in Chicago now for about six months and now that I am settled into my apartment and acquainted with life in the city, I am feeling more and more like a city girl every day. There is one aspect of city life that still throws me for a loop, though. Dating.
While I am no stranger to the dating scene, the many differences between city dating and country dating has been quite an adjustment. You see, in a small town, there isn’t an unlimited supply of fresh faces like you find in a city. Therefore, everybody knows everybody else and dating often happens within circles of friends with most couples being good friends beforehand.
Also, living in a small town means that no one’s private life is very private. You know probably more than you may want to know about most people in the town, so when beginning to date someone new, you already have an idea of who they are both good and bad.
However, in the city, there are so many people in such a small amount of space that meeting someone new happens as soon as you leave your apartment. Also, anyone outside a person’s close group of friends is a complete mystery. Therefore, meeting someone new is usually taken with a grain of salt as you know nothing about them other than they just held a door open for you or bought you a drink.
These differences have proved difficult for a shy country girl like myself. And while I have tried a date or two city-style, I haven’t been able to even consider a relationship knowing only the person’s name and a few random facts. It requires a large amount of trust as you are skipping past the meeting and friendship stage and jumping straight to a date. Talk about speed dating…
In fact, it kind of reminds me of renting. You get about 5 minutes in each apartment to decide if it’s the one you want. When you do find a good one, you’re holding your breath as you sign the yearlong lease and praying that there is no horrible moldy growth under the sink or something else you missed. At least with dating there is always an escape clause - a good friend with an emergency. If you’ve recently moved to the big city, how have you adjusted to the dating scene?
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Talk about fresh faces all the time, that's why I love it! You literally can't run out of new people to meet. At least in LA, there's no shortage of good looking girls here. Even at Ohio University, the town is so small that by your senior year you do feel like you know everybody.