Making Friends In Your Old Age
 

So I'm aware that a good portion of the usual posters around these parts are in their mid twenties (a few older still!) and so I thought I'd bring this topic up and see what everyone had to say about it.

Its become apparent to me since I left the military that meeting and "making" friends is nigh unto impossible. I suspect it's some mixture of inability to put up with annoying people, less time for socializing and a lack of an established friend group that make this so, but age has got to have something to do with it.

I'd just like to open up the table for discussion about making friends in your mid to late twenties. What kind of activities, places, tools(?) do you use? Or are you finding it as equally frustrating as I am?

Hit people with your car. Since you have to wait a while before such situations are cleared up, it's a great chance for socialization. You might meet a few assholes, but eventually someone nice will come along! And for the last time, don't hit to kill

I think the view you have on it is the wrong way around, Funka. You do activities YOU like and meet people who also happen to like them. If you like tennis, maybe you'll meet some guys on the next court over. If you like biking, join a cycling club of some sort.

From there, you'll meet people and can take your pick of who you like and might like to do other things with.

See that totally doesn't work when you enjoy things like anime, pen and paper rpgs and miniature wargaming.

People who enjoy that shit are the SCUM OF THE UNIVERSE! (present company excluded... maybe.)

Seriosly Blues, who enjoys biking and tennis?

Your local communist refuge is full of friendly individuals who would welcome you with open arms and a caring sense of comraderie and brotherhood.

Or go to the pub.

Find an RP group? Do you have a local comic shop that holds card tournaments and stuff? Great place to go to find people with interests like yours.

Absolutely no one I'd let in 30 feet of me, personally, but they're the examples my mom's been drilling into my head for the past decade or so.

No no I think he meant he's tried that, but the people there are THE SCUM OF THE UNIVERSE!

And well, we pretty much are.

It might be just because I'm an ornery fuck, but I'm working under the assumption that this is a surmountable obstacle.

To clarify my scum of the universe comment: your average "gamer nerd" is highly socially inept, not nearly as intelligent as he/she thinks he/she is and terribly self centered as a result of a misguided superiority complex. Now we just have to toss in poor personal hygiene and an almost religious aversion to treadmills and well...

I'm not saying there aren't people out there who are interested in highly nerdy activities and also baths, I'm just saying the likelihood of meeting a group of such persons at a comic book store is... low. In my experience, believe me I've tried.

As for the pub, well the pub is great when you bring your friends along, but all my old time buddies are flung across the far reaches of creation. So it'd really just be me showing up to a bunch of strangers getting drunk, and since I no longer pursue drinking as a hobby nor do I lack for romantic companionship, the pub (or bars, or clubs) seems like a complete waste of time. That's something to do once you have friends.

I'd also like to point out that I fully understand the inherent irony of posing such a question on an internet forum.

Go to like student pubs, especially during late afternoon early evening when the grad students are skiving off work. it's not about drinking, it about sitting aroud talking about shit with whoever else is there and they all collosal nerds. Like that's where I made most of my friends in new cities.