I don't know whether your post was meant as a catharsis or an avenue for feedback. But here comes the feedback.... I can relate with your story. In the last t

I don't know whether your post was meant as a catharsis or an avenue for feedback. But here comes the feedback.... I can relate with your story. In the last two years I've been learning development while working in a business type role. Nobody at lunch gives a crap about webpack or Node.js, nor do my housemates, and while on dates I've concluded it's best not to bring up what items I've recently starred on Github. So each day passes with a dozen unspoken conversations. That's absolutely fine, I've nobody to bounce my love of modern classical music off either. That doesn't make me love those interests less. This right here is a community I'm part off, so is the 'Tech peeps I like' twitter list I follow, so are the comments below the newest codrops article, and the discussions on Github pull requests I made, and the developers I support on patreon. Truth be told, having been to meetups, there's a good chance you're not missing a whole lot. "Hey isn't [topic of meetup] great?" "Yeah I really like [latest update]" "Me too" [beer consumed] "Great, bye". I'm being flippant. The point is I think you're ignoring the community staring you in the face and while I understand your perspective you should realise that these barriers are mostly self-imposed. Anxiety, self-esteem issues and imposter syndrome won't disappear just because you're in the city or because a meetup is closer than a 1 hour train journey away. So rather than assuming doors are closed before even trying to open them, why not apply for a job in the city, create a pull request and travel to that meetup in Melbourne, no matter how 'taxing'?