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| Photo from here. |
In the first few months of living up here, I went to bars, restaurants, and the gym alone as a way to meet new people (even though my GA friends thought I was nuts!). This just got me a lot of guy friends since guys are usually the ones to approach girls at these locations. While guy friends are awesome, nothing beats a good group of girls! Not to lady hate, but it's tough to make new girlfriends post-college. Thankfully, I've come to realize that even though we have our own core group of girlfriends by our mid-twenties, we all are still open to making new friends as well. Here are some ways to meet new girlfriends that I've encountered over the last few months:
The Work Place - My work is about 95% female, and surprisingly we all get along really well. While I love my job, I think I love the daily interaction with my co-workers the best. The great thing about making friends at work is that you already share a common interest - your profession! If a co-worker seems like she has BFF potential, ask her out for post-work drinks or to join you for lunch in your cubicle. Having friends at work makes the hours there more enjoyable!
The Fitness Class - My friend recently met a girl during a SoulCycle class that she thought she could become friends with. She got up the courage to ask the girl to accompany her to a class one evening, and now they coordinate attending classes together from time to time. Like at the work place, fitness classes are a great way to meet new friends because you already share a common interest with each other.
The Guy Friend - You know who else is searching for the perfect girl? Your guy friend. Why not take advantage of this and use him to find girlfriends for yourself? His Friday night group outing to the bar? His Saturday night house party? Great opportunities for you to meet new people!
The Internet - While this one might sound sketchy (and it can be!), I've made a lot of friends though blogging and Twitter. A great way to do this is to attend meet-ups and local blogging events. If you love a blog written by a gal in your area, why not suggest meeting up for lunch or dinner? You could get a new friend out of it, but at the very least you will have a new "restaurant review" post!
The Friend-Of-A-Friend - As I mentioned previously, when I moved up here I didn't know anyone...but my friend, Donna, did! Donna set me up with her friend, Sarah. While Sarah lives in Brooklyn and we don't meet up as much as we should, it's still nice knowing she's close by...especially when Twilight: Breaking Dawn came out and I needed someone to go with me! If you both already have a friend in common, there is a pretty good chance you two will hit it off as well. As it turns out, Sarah and I are both obsessed with books and movies. Perfect!
The Alumni Association - Your high school and college alumni associations are great ways to meet new friends - or catch up with old ones! While I didn't actually go through my high school's alumni association, I heard from a fellow alum that an old high school buddy of mine was living in the city. While I was good friends with Rebecca throughout high school, we lost touch in college because we attended different schools. We met for brunch last Sunday at 1pm. We had so much fun catching up that our friend date didn't end until 6pm! It was really neat to reconnect with her, and I think we will continue to hang out.
These are just a few places to meet new people. Do you have any other suggestions? Let me know in the comments below!
Stay fit and fabulous,
A
Oh man... We needed this. And to think: making friends only gets more challenging as you get into serious relationships, marriage, and finally kids. Then there are the rules - and while that sounds crazy - it's just easier than a married guy and a married girl that's not his wife getting too close and the drama when someone gets too upset about it. So couples hang out as couples (or guys night & girls night), which means you ALL have to click - yikes! The military is tough, because we all consider our friends "back home" our real friends, and our friends where we actually live just people to get you by (and if you're lucky you will find some life long friends, too!) But our friends back home move on and simply don't understand the "military life" the way you want them too, and the people around you are fun, but not the same way that your "real" friends back home are. And whoa, clearly I could write an entire blog about this topic! Sorry!
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