How do you make friends with people who already have a well-defined circle of friends? How do you make friends from attending events or organization meetings?
This topic came up with someone I was talking to recently (someone who has extremely good social skills btw). She said that she was having a lot of difficulty meeting friends in her area, because most people around her already had their circles of friends that they did things with, and weren't necessarily looking for more. This resonated with me, because I feel that this is the case more often than not. For example, if I join a particular group, I will be the newcomer...everyone there will already know and be friends with each other, and it can be very difficult for me (and apparently even for people far more socially proficient than me) to break into that setting. Does anyone have any advice on overcoming this?
And a second question, when making friends from larger groups such as clubs, how do you ever get 1-1 time to talk to people? I find that when I join these types of things, all of the socialization takes place in large groups, so I never develop any connection with any individual person. I think that I would be better at making friends at these things by talking to people one on one (or even in groups of 3-4), but I don't really know how to do that without being super-weird. I'm far more comfortable in small (no more than 3) groups of people also, so I feel that I can put my best foot forward in those situations.
30 Apr 2014, 9:24 pm
