Online Meet-Ups
Farmer to Farmer?
Last minute holiday shopping was on the to do list for the day. I went to a typical tiny American town. Main street, Rudolf music blaring, a horse drawn carriage — all of the fanfare of the holiday season. Dressed with holiday decorations, the shops were bustling with last minute gift-givers.
I attempt not to eavesdrop, but sometimes it cannot be avoided.
The conversation went as follows:
A Male and Female — twenty somethings…..
“ Thanks for the invite- I thought we would never meet-up!”
“Yeah, I have been busy Erin and we best get into it right away.”
“Into what? I am not a hook up you know!”
Laughter… “ No, I know you think I just work on a farm, but you need to know it is hard for me to date as I work on a Slaughter Farm. I killed 240 chickens in the last two weeks and they are all frozen for our dinners. It is my father’s farm.”
“Greg, I don’t care. You had me scared there for a minute.”
“I know your family has a flower farm and you do weddings and shit- this is totally different. I didn’t think you would like me.”
The young couple walked away with their lattes and I sat down outside by a raging river pondering….Future Farmers dating? Farmers meet Farmers?
I am used to city living so in that context the eavesdropping would be about clubs, stocks/bonds/ real estate values and the like. This was a bit of a shocker and I laughed to myself. From city to rural areas- people are lonely.
Many people are just searching for connection. Whether that be on media, tictok, meta, gaming, meet-up sites etc…
I tried one site once for six hours. I joined Match.com and within six hours I had 140 messages in my email.(No kidding) It freaked me out. They were paragraphs from men not just like “hello” — I deleted them all and went off the site. I could not get a refund, but I was free. It was a catharsis.
It was so humiliating to me -the whole experience and it was only a few hours. I could never do that again. Against my closest friends recommendations, I chose to just not be in that space. It is a whole different world out there. I want no part of it. I found it creepy, invasive and secretive. I hate secrets.
My life is simple and I want to keep it that way. If I ever do meet my last chapter, it will be in person- looking him in the eye and with a silent knowing. If I do not, I am good. I am strong alone and my passions lie in a variety of areas. Future Farmers or City Folk need not send online applications, resumes or have the need to “sell themselves”.
I am enough on my own.