I recently moved to a new town which is remote, very small and at a tourist location. Most people come here temporarily to save some money or on their working holiday then move on. I would say the average stay is probably six months, and there are about 1000 people living here at the moment. At this stage, it looks like I'll be staying for about a year, possibly longer.

I know it may not happen, but I am open to meeting someone here. This is because I am very flexible in where I am living, and would like to move somewhere else when my time finishes here anyway. It's very easy for me to transfer to most parts of the country. So, if I met someone I could potentially follow them and if it doesn't work out, that's fine, because I'm living in an interesting new place.

The thing is, I'm not sure if this is such a good idea. I want to follow the advice of the surrendered single and go on multiple dates with different men to eventually narrow them down. But in such a small town, would this just make my life very awkward and give me a terrible reputation? Even if I end things with someone then move on to the next, it's not really ideal, is it? Another thing to consider is that a good portion of men are only looking for casual sex, which is the same anywhere I suppose but with so few people it makes finding a relationship a bit more difficult.

Perhaps I should take this time to go into "monk mode" and really work on myself and avoid dating. I'm also here without my friends or family so perhaps it's not very healthy to seek out a relationship right now. One of my motivators is that I'm simply lonely, another is that I'm worried I'm wasting my youth by taking a year or possibly more out of my life without even trying to find someone. I'll be 25 soon and I ideally want to begin having children by 30. I don't want to rush into things for the sake of it but I definitely feel a sense of urgency to "get things moving" as well.