Meet and Greet

Now that I’m a resident of this beautiful city, it’s time to make friends. That’s my new, New Year’s resolution. I met my New Jersey friend last night after work and we went to a cute Mexican restaurant a couple of blocks from my apartment. She’s probably the most outgoing person I know, and I started to chat with her about making friends in NYC. What surprised me was her response. She spent some time here last summer in order to be closer to her job and stated, “For such a large city, it’s unbelievable how lonely you can feel.” This response coming from her shocked me. She’s that girl that can walk into any bar and become friends with every person in the room in five minutes. I felt a lot better about myself, because while the lonely girl in the city feeling has not plagued me yet (I’m still looking around with my mouth open wide at every turn I take when I get off the subway), I fear it may creep into my life in the next couple of months unless I make some changes.

So I’m doing what I have to do to make new friends. I recently logged onto meetup.com – a site dedicated to helping people like myself find buddies in the city. You’d be surprised how many relatively normal people are facing the exact same situation I am. Most of the posts on a group titled “The New to NYC Group for Young Adults 20-25” were “Just moved to NYC from ‘fill in the blank’ and I’m looking to meet new people.” NYC is huge – 8 million people call this amazing place home, but so many of us are not walking into bars alone on Friday nights or walking up to strangers in coffee shops. What do you even say in those situations? “Hi, I’m new to New York. Be my friend?” I feel that’s not the best first impression to give others. What’s great about meetup.com is that it focuses solely on your interests, so you’re able to meet like minded people. I joined a writing group and am currently on a waiting list to write for an hour with others at the Starbucks at the Empire State Building next Wednesday. There is a meet and greet next Sunday downtown near Washington Square Park for 20-somethings new to the city. Hopefully one of these groups will supply me with a new crowd of friends who will help me explore the city.

While I’ve always tried to be as friendly as possible, I don’t think anyone would call me the most social butterfly. I tend to stick with my wolf pack (forgive the overused term), and don’t branch out too often. My goal is to change this about myself. There are billions of interesting people in this world, and I have to meet up with a few of them if I’m going to make sure I don’t fall into the ice cream and Netflix Friday/Saturday night routine. I’m lucky I still have friends living close enough to come into the city and have dinner/go out with me on any given weekend – M is coming up on Saturday for a fun-filled, Black Swan viewing night (although since I’m having allergy testing done next week and can’t drink alcohol starting Saturday, it probably will be an ice cream eating, movie watching Saturday night – eh, oh well) I’m not sure how the brave souls who move into apartments alone with no roommates or friends in the area survive. Networking is the best way to take advantage of all situations whether it’s bar hopping or job changing, and I plan to network quite a lot in the next couple of months in order to settle down in my new home.

PS: Anyone who has friends in the city who want a fun, young red-head to go out with one of these nights, give them my name! You receive extra brownie points in my friendship book if that friend happens to be an attractive, single man. ☺