10 WAYS TO MAKE FRIENDS IN YOUR 30'S

The trendy saying that people ran off with from a Drake song, “No new friends” is ill-advised.  Making new friends in your 30’s when our lives are starting to become well balanced is a great time to make friends. Believe it or not, making friends when you’re older can be easier and is quite beneficial.

What constitutes overall health, wellness, and well being is your friendships and relationships. Who is your community?

A majority of our childhood friendships die off mostly due to the fact that we are not the same person at 30 as we were at 15.  The other factor could possibly be that you no longer live in the same state that you did at 15. According to quora.com, over 50% of New Yorkers are transplants.  This makes the need for new friends of all the more importance.

Friends are a big damn deal and picking the right ones are an even bigger fucking deal.  The biggest concern about making new friends is where to find them and how to make them. Here are:

10 ways to make friends in your 30’s.

Work  

Your place of employment is a GREAT place to make friends.  Thinking about the fact that you spend more time at work than you do with your own family should immediately convince you that this source is by far the best place.  Some people don’t like to mix ‘business with pleasure’ but that does not equate to having someone to confide in that understands your daily reality. However, there is a percentage of caution that should be taken because there is a higher level of confidentiality.  You want to ensure that you can trust that what you talk about outside of work doesn’t make it into work. Trust is earned and is the foundation of any friendship, no matter the age or place where you make friends. Just proceed with slightly more caution in the workplace.

Travel Groups 

Travel groups are organizations that choose a destination and put together an itinerary in advance for people.  Sometimes they allow you to pay a deposit and offer a payment plan. A great source for finding these groups are via social media.  You can use popular hashtags, such as #travelgroups or #travel. You can also log into your Facebook account and search the groups' section for travel groups. You can also reach out to travel agents and they can do the work for you.  Travel groups are great ways to make friends because you clearly share the same interests of traveling and the destination selected.

Social Media 

Piggybacking off of ways to find travel groups, is good ole’ social media.  What can’t you find on social media nowadays, right? Besides travel, social media allows you to connect with people that have other similar interests.  You can use hashtags and Facebook groups for other interests besides travel as well. Another great way to make friends on social media is Twitter. For example, your favorite show ‘This is Us’ is trending.  Pay attention to those that reply or retweet your tweets. Check out their profile, maybe they reside in the same area and you can start up a conversation about that. 

Conferences/Expos

Conferences and expos for work are great for more than just networking.  Conferences and expos have a very specific scope of interest. It could be an IT conference or a beauty expo, either way, this is another example of shared interests that are beneficial to building friendships.

Classes/School

Perhaps you're taking an online class and someone in the group thread has similar ideas or would prefer to study in person with someone. Or you might be taking a yoga class and spot someone with great taste in leggings.  Sparking a convo with someone in a class is very easy, as it’s a class and there’s bound to be questioned. This gives the conversation an easy start.  Since we're on the topic of school, if you have children, chances are that your child has already made a friend at school and is begging for a playdate.  So of course, next up is a parent introduction to make this happen.  If you're lucky enough, you'll vibe with the other parent and become friends.

Brunch

Brunches are basically parties with a lighter atmosphere vs a regular club.  This makes it much easier to transition into convos. Brunches typically have great food, mimosas, and music.  Wait times at these social gatherings can be very long, giving you an additional opportunity to spark a convo while waiting in line.

House Parties 

While we’re on the subject of parties, house parties a.k.a kickbacks make for great ways to start friendships.  House parties provide automatic buffers of introductions. It's an automatic buffer because this is in someone’s home and you already know someone there. You either know the host or the person that invited you.  This person will typically introduce you to someone else at the party that they believe you would get along with or share a common interest.

The Airport  

The airport is a great place to meet people from all over.  This works really well when traveling solo while grabbing a drink before takeoff.  Perhaps the person next to you has an interesting looking cocktail, asking them about their drink and where they're headed is a great segway to starting a convo.  

Support Groups 

Group counseling has become more and more popular thanks to those that are becoming more open about the state of their mental health and making mental health a priority.  Making friends in a support group is rather easy because the group is typically less than 20 people and the common reason for the support is very specific.  Someone that not only shares your struggles but desires to do better should be someone that screams 'friendship'.

Dog Park  

What's better than one pet lover? Two.  Pets are family members and dog lovers are serious about their babies.  Asking questions or giving suggestions to someone else about their pet is a fantastic conversation starter.                                                                                       

 

The biggest key to take from all of this is that you have to actually be willing to put yourself out there and just dive right in.  Don't believe that you have to be extroverted in order to do this, introverts need love too.  Making friends in your 30's is not necessarily easy, but these are some great options to start your venture.  
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