When you’re young, making friends is easy. You have a core group of friends throughout primary school and often meet lifelong friends at university. As an adult, the flood of new friendships slows to a trickle, however – especially if you move or travel around quite a bit. If you often find yourself as a stranger in a sea of friendly (yet unfamiliar) faces, here are a few ways to reach out and meet new people.
Take a Class
It doesn’t matter whether it’s yoga or a spinning class at the gym or a beer-brewing class at your local brewery, get out and do what you love. Nothing builds camaraderie like a shared goal, whether it’s mastering the wheel pose or sharing tips on how to get the desired flavor out of that new lager you’ve all been working on. This doesn’t just get you out and interacting with a new group of people – it also ensures that you share at least one thing in common with those people.
Go Digital
Whether you’ve moved and would like to make friends or are traveling and would like to meet people to show you around their hometown, apps like Pal are a wonderful way to make connections everywhere you go. Pal is infinitely customizable, allowing you to search for individuals, couples, or even groups of people for different activities in cities and towns around the world. The app makes it easy to set your own activity and see who’s game to join up. You can also search to see what other Pals are doing and join them in their activities. The app also lets you chat with other Pals, which is great for planning where to go next.
Volunteer
Another way to make connections in a new place is to volunteer, either solo or with your significant other. It doesn’t matter whether you head out to the animal shelter to walk dogs or spend time at a soup kitchen handing out meals, volunteering is a wonderful way to develop a sense of purpose, as well as meet other community-minded individuals or couples.
Meet People at Work
One of the easiest ways to meet new people simply involves doing what you already to every day: getting up and going to work. Make it a point to open yourself up, start and jump into conversations, and put yourself in a position to connect with co-workers. Especially if you work at a larger company or organization, there’s a huge untapped well of individuals and established groups for you to get to know and hang out with outside of office hours.
Join a Book Club
If you’re an avid reader, this will automatically connect you with other bibliophiles. If you can find a book club that has a specific theme that appeals to you (a feminist book club, for example, or maybe a mystery lovers’ book club), then you stand an even higher chance of striking up discussions with other people who share the same interests.
The wonderful thing about all of these ideas is that they provide you the ability to make friendships and connections that are as involved as you’d like – whether you only have time to meet up once a week for class or to go mountain biking or whether you’re hoping to make more meaningful, long-lasting friendships. One thing is for certain; the more you put yourself out there, the more opportunities you have to meet people!
