Ryan Kriger was miserable. It was 2010 and, by all outward appearances, things were going well for him. He earned a good salary as an attorney with a prestigious New York City law firm. He had plenty of friends and lived in the hip, upscale neighborhood of Brooklyn. But Kriger, in his thirties at the time, hated his job and increasingly entertained his longtime "escapist fantasy" to give it all up and move to Vermont. So one day, the Sharon, Mass., native did an internet search for "antitrust jobs in Vermont" and spotted an employment ad for a position in the Vermont Attorney General's Office. Kriger applied for his dream job and was hired. "After I got the job, I'm like, Wait a minute. What am I doing?" Kriger recalled asking himself. "I know zero people in Vermont." He knew all too well how hard it was for him to make friends in a new city. In his twenties, he relocated five times — to Seattle; Stamford, Conn.; Boston; Washington, D.C.; and New York City — and each time struggled to rebuild a core group of companions. After nine years in the Big Apple, he wasn't sure he wanted to start over again. This time, however, Kriger devised a plan. So on January 1, 2011, he took the plunge and relocated to Montpelier, a city in which, as even his new coworkers and longtime residents told him, many people found it hard to make friends. Four months later, Kriger, a self-described introvert, threw himself a birthday party and, looking around his apartment, counted 26 new friends. At the time, he remembered thinking, "Ha! It worked!" How'd he do it? Vermonters can find out this month in a series of free talks Kriger is giving titled "Making Friends & Finding Community as an Adult." To be sure, Kriger knows plenty of people now; the 43-year-old assistant attorney general is on the governor's cybersecurity team and teaches at the University of Vermont. He's an occasional standup comic and was the founder of the now-defunct Burlington comedy club Levity; he includes some comedy in his presentation. Kriger said he allows some time at the end of the talk for audience members to get to know each other. But he emphasized that it isn't a young professionals club, Meetup, a dating seminar or a networking event. "I hate the word 'networking,'" he…
Ryan Kriger was miserable. It was 2010 and, by all outward appearances, things were going well for him. He earned a good salary as an attorney with a prestigious New York City law firm. He had plenty of friends and lived in the hip, upscale neighborhood of Brooklyn. But Kriger, in his thirties at the time, hated his job and increasingly entertained his longtime "escapist fantasy" to give it all up and move to Vermont. So one day, the Sharon, Mass., native did an internet search for "antitrust jobs in Vermont" and spotted an employment ad for a position in the Vermont Attorney General's Office. Kriger applied for his dream job and was hired. "After I got the job, I'm like, Wait a minute. What am I doing?" Kriger recalled asking himself. "I know zero people in Vermont." He knew all too well how hard it was for him to make friends in a new city. In his twenties, he relocated five times — to Seattle; Stamford, Conn.; Boston; Washington, D.C.; and New York City — and each time struggled to rebuild a core group of companions. After nine years in the Big Apple, he wasn't sure he wanted to start over again. This time, however, Kriger devised a plan. So on January 1, 2011, he took the plunge and relocated to Montpelier, a city in which, as even his new coworkers and longtime residents told him, many people found it hard to make friends. Four months later, Kriger, a self-described introvert, threw himself a birthday party and, looking around his apartment, counted 26 new friends. At the time, he remembered thinking, "Ha! It worked!" How'd he do it? Vermonters can find out this month in a series of free talks Kriger is giving titled "Making Friends & Finding Community as an Adult." To be sure, Kriger knows plenty of people now; the 43-year-old assistant attorney general is on the governor's cybersecurity team and teaches at the University of Vermont. He's an occasional standup comic and was the founder of the now-defunct Burlington comedy club Levity; he includes some comedy in his presentation. Kriger said he allows some time at the end of the talk for audience members to get to know each other. But he emphasized that it isn't a young professionals club, Meetup, a dating seminar or a networking event. "I hate the word 'networking,'" he…