The last time I had to actively seek out new friends was my freshman year of college. Before that was kindergarten. So, I can’t say that going out and finding a group of people to forever associate with is something I’ve had a lot of practice in. Moving out on my own means that my close friends aren’t so close anymore, and that my friends who I’m not as close with anymore have turned into acquaintances. That’s where meetup.com helped me out.
I heard about meetup.com from a friend who recently picked up and left New York to live in California all on her own. She explained to me that she met some cool people and had a lot of fun, so I decided to check it out.
Fortunately enough, I have a friend who lives closeby, so we decided to head to a random happy hour together that was described in a meetup for “Happy Hour for Single Professionals Workaholics.” We fit the category, so we showed up at the designated time to find that most everyone was closer to retirement than the start of their career. We stuck it out, but it was definitely not comfortable.
We took our chances at trivia night last night with “20 Somethings New to the Area.” I was a little anxious, but I figured that it couldn’t go much worse than awkwardly sitting with a group of strangers as they talk about their kids’ college loans. Ten of us showed up, and even though the trivia was incredibly challenging, we had a great time getting to know each other and listening to the beautiful English accents of the wait staff.
It was nice to know that there’s a decent group of people that are willing to get together pretty much anytime right around the corner. The group has already scheduled other fun meetup activities, which is exciting to see. I met a girl who has been in the group for two years – so clearly it’s worth it!
I was super worried about living on my own because I thought that my social life would spiral so far downward that I would be forced to get a cat (even in my pet-less apartment), especially because I left so many friends back at college, and the rest are across the country. I’m really excited to see that won’t be the case!
Love it! Friendddddddddssssss!!