In this episode, reporter Anna Van Dine teams up with listener Vermont Olsen for some journalistic speed-dating. Note: Our show is produced for the ear. We recommend listening to the audio; for accessibility, we also provide a written version of the episode below. Subscribe to Brave Click here State for free, so you never miss an episode:. We shared a pesto pie, and got to know one another before heading to the bar next door.
Anna Van Dine: I was wondering if by way of a bio for you, we could do, dating, a dating profile. Silas: So my name is Silas Olsen. I'm 21 years old, almost I'm 5 feet 10 inches tall on a vermont day.
Silas: My ideal date? OK, I'm gonna give two answers. Dating number two is a concert with a shared musician we both like. That's my number two. Dinner and drinks. I know what this might sound like. But here on Brave Little Statewe answer listener questions. And we invite our question-askers to be part of the reporting process. So no, this is very much not a date. He wants to know: What is the small-town Vermont dating scene like? Especially for first generation Vermonters? Silas grew up in vermont small town in eastern Connecticut, just graduated from Colby College in Maine, and is planning to start a career as a math teacher.
Silas: But I also sort of don't vermont how I'm going to integrate into a small town if I end up moving there. It can dating sort of a closed off place to try to get into socially. Silas and I figured the best way to find an answer would be to actually go to a small town and talk to people. We needed a place that would be about the same driving distance for both of us. We also needed to find a spot where people vermont.
And, as Silas put it while standing on Main Street: For a town this small, "it's kind of poppin'" on a Friday night. And Babes often hosts special events. The night we visited was karaoke night, which we could hear as we walked up to the door. People come https://telegram-web.online/speed-dating-dubai.php all over for karaoke night.
All 25 going on 26 years of my life. Will: Very hard.
Find a Match Within Minutes
There's not a high population density. And yeah, I mean, a lot of young people here also vermont the state. When we put Silas' question to the Vermont subreddit, we also heard that the dating scene in small towns is: "horrible," "impossible," "awful" and "hell. And, as one person pointed out, even Burlington can be like a small town.
One Redditor said that online dating "seems necessary. At Babes, I told a group of vermont we were working on an episode about dating in small vermont. They groaned collectively.
Dating Bretton Watts stepped out. Bretton: Fairfax County, which has vermont million people just in the county. I learned that Vermont hasin the entire state. Note: He overestimated by dating in egyptBretton: And I'm already out of matches on Bumble and Tinder.
And I moved my age range up and down. I had it set from like 21 to like And now it's like 18 to Bretton: I don't even know. I mean, I live in Woodstock. But it's just, I mean, it's a small town. It's a small state. It would seem no matter where I go, somebody knows me.
Maybe if I was like 40 it'd be easier, but everybody here is either old or non-existent. Which on the one hand is kind of nice, and on the other, kind of lonely. Because Silas studied math, and I am not so hot with numbers, we tag-teamed some statistical analysis. There are other factors to consider, like personality, politics, profession, whether or not someone has kids.
That's right: Some people dating luck with volunteering, going to community events, or hanging out at the Bethel watering hole. Others find people through mutual friends.
What’s Vermont’s small-town dating scene like?
Cassandra LaFontaine: When we started dating, we both lived in Vermont. I lived in northern Vermont, and she lived in, like, Central Vermont. And we had no idea each other existed until we met on Tinder. When they got together almost four years ago, Cassandra lived in Enosburg Falls and Mallory lived in Rochester.
Mallory: Yeah, the first several weeks was a lot of her dating two and a half hours to get to my place. Cassandra: In a snowstorm, on back roads, because you lived in the middle of nowhere, Vermont. And so I couldn't even go on the dating. Given the demographics of this place, those long drives are pretty common. Vermont has about 70 people per square mile. Compare that to the U. He was born and raised in Barnard. He still lives there, and works at a hotel. She was a housekeeper. Mike: So it was kind of you know, in passing — a little "en passant" — and we started hanging out a lot.
And we found out that we have a lot of connections together. And we started, you know, falling in love as people do. Mike: The right person is hard to find around here. I'm a lover. You know, when I find someone, I put my heart into it.
So yeah, it's been rough. But that's what it is around here. You got to find someone who connects with you and wants dating same things you do. It's difficult. Mike: In my experience, no. But, I mean, at this point in my life, I've spent 26 years in this state, I'm ready for another state.
That's kind of where I'm at in my life. I want to go to heck, I don't even know. Silas and I bid goodnight to brokenhearted Mike. We headed back through the bar, pulsing with karaoke, and parted ways in the hot summer night. Vermont I mean, when you think about, like, where you want to go, is Vermont still on the table when you're thinking about jobs and stuff? Silas: You know? It's on the table long term. And it's on the table if I meet someone, or have someone that I want to move there with, but realistically, it's not on the table if it's just me moving to a small town in Vermont, you know what I mean?
That's not realistically an option, even though maybe a year ago, I would have considered it an option.
Why Dating Apps Are Popular in Vermont
Even though the answer is kind of a disappointing one. Living proof click that is Lucy Hamel. Lucy Hamel: I moved to Vermont actually just a couple of years ago, right when the pandemic hit, as a single mom. I've got a six year old boy. Lucy and her son, Luca, moved to Craftsbury, where dating works at a childcare center.
Lucy: Everyone I met was a parent, you know, through soccer, different activities.