Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with meetingnewpeople

Building New Relationships

Garden — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:38:40 -0800

Does anyone know of any quizzes or tests that would be good at indicating what type of hobbies or interests a person should pursue? I need to take on some new hobbies and interests so that I am more involved with people. I believe by doing this it would make meeting new people a lot easier. I'm basically in a rut right now, I do the same things all the time. I took a yoga class over the summer and enjoyed it immensely. I used to play guitar, but that doesn't push me to get involved with other people. My whole objective of finding new interests and hobbies is to find make new friends and to have something to talk about with new people. A lot of my hobbies are solitary activities that don't require me to get involved with new people. The yoga class was good and I'd like to start that up in the future again. I've seen a lot of career tests out there, but I sure don't see any tests that would recommend what interests and hobbies a person could take up. I've thought of taking up woodworking or stained glass but again I'm not too sure about the social aspect of these activities. Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Even if you don't have any idea about an online test or quiz. What have you done to start new friendships or relationships with regards to hobbies or interests?

How do I make new friends and hang out with them for the first time?

mittenbex — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:01:43 -0800

How do I turn potential friends into actual friends? What is the best way to meet people and go from acquaintances to actual friends that hang out? More inside. Okay, two years ago I left Michigan and moved out of state after taking a job to be a nanny.

I had friends here including my now boyfriend but due to some major drama my boyfriend and I don't see or really talk to them anymore. I won't bother going into this.

I work in a private home as a nanny so I spend most of my days interacting with kids, which I love, but it has made it difficult for me to make new friends. I seem to have forgotten how to make friends. Or I'm losing my skills at it.

My weekends are spent with my boyfriend and occasionally we hang out with people he works with and they are great. I have been slowly becoming more and more friendly with the boyfriend's friends' wives or girlfriends but I don't want to seem pushy. I don't want to seem weird asking people I've only met a few times to hang out. I mean I know you just have to take the plunge and I normally wouldn't care if people were like 'Whoa, random weird person' but I don't want people at his work thinking he's got a pushy SO haha.

Aside from work, he doesn't have a lot of friends. So I can't exactly count on him for introducing me to people and it's definitely not his responsibilty.

I talk to people when I'm out and about with the kids during the day and when I've had reoccuring encounters at say baseball practice or library programs I do find moms of other kids who I will talk to and become friendly with but it's almost like when they find out I'm a nanny and not a mother, they sort of would rather talk to an actual mom. I could be imagining this. But regardless, it never materializes into an actual friendship.

I am very friendly and close with the parents of our neighbors and the neighborhood kids (I'm a live-in nanny) and also with obviously the parents of the kids I watch. I'm not like socially awkward or anything. I'm known to be pretty funny and talkative. When I was in high school and college I had buckets of friends and seem to pick them up extremely easily.

I think I just want to sort of have my own set-up away from my 'job' and those people connected to that. Most people make jobs at school and work I think and ... the people at my job are little tykes :)

So any advice on where to make friends and how to actually start hanging out with people without looking awkwardly goonish?

I'm mid twenties now. All done with college. My interests are movies, reading, yoga, photography and I am living on Long Island now if any of that sparks any ideas.

Help!

Making Friends

the fire you left me — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 08:47:07 -0800

How do you make friends?