I’m 41F. I was married but separated 8 years ago. I was still young but was very traumatized and never really wanted another relationship. Lately I’ve been feeling a little lonely and would like to meet some new people but I moved and don’t have many friends here and the ones I have are younger and do younger people things (like going out at night. I’m too old for that lol). I wanted to meet some people my age, friends or dates, but almost everyone is married. I do cooking and French classes but again, only young people do that and I’m the “odd old lady”. I think people past 40 don’t really have hobbies or money to spend on them. I’m overweight so I can’t really use apps, and to be honest don’t really want. So how a single woman without kids (can’t have it) meet people?! Or do I just give up?! lol
If the objective is “meeting people” in the dating sense, it’s usually going to be apps or singles events. Some apps are definitely better than others, so I wouldn’t just write them all off thinking they’re all like Tinder.
If dating is a nice-to-have outcome but you’re also happy to socialize, MeetUp is a great option. You can vet events based on something you’re already interested in, and meeting someone while doing it becomes secondary (and therefore less pressure). If there are no good candidates (or no chemistry), then at least you didn’t waste your night - you still got to play board games or make sourdough or whatever was going on.