Wanted: Circle of Friends

When I was a kid, there was Alisa and Patty. When I was a teenager, there was Keysha and Tanya. In my early 20’s, there was Chris and Jermaine. In my late 20s and 30s, there was Eagleclaws, Stuns (r.i.p.), Bigjohnson, Christhammer, Machinshin, Rocknrolf, Broknar, Moofs, Marex, Talob, Vapula, Jod, Pfister, Brink, Rhuk, and CubanStrife from my World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV guilds. I’ve always had a circle of friends, whether journeying across the country with real comrades or traversing the dangerous snowy tundras of Icecrown with virtual ones. Regardless of how I got them, I’ve always had a circle of friends I could shoot the shit with and troll while working towards a common goal … until now.

My real life friends have moved on with their real life lives long time ago, becoming wives, husbands, alcoholics, the neighborhood nutjob, or just pieces of shit. My virtual friends surprisingly have lasted longer than my real life ones. But that’s really not all too surprising when you’re in the nerd scene where everyone is usually single (and don’t give two fucks because our Frost Strike crits for 25 million) and a loser of some sort. No commitments here! But virtual friends are usually lost when games fade, or when you fuckin let the tank die and no one wants to be associated with that guy.

I’ve been two years in New York City and purposely made no new friends here because rather than associate like most people in crowds do, I get paralysis. As a result, I feel like I’m socially awkward. For example, some guy showed interest in me, I didn’t know what to talk about, so somehow I began talking about biological sciences and different animals. Needless to say, that guy never called me back. Which is cool, because he came off as basic and boring to me anyway, but my point is, I’m interested in anything in sciences and tech, and most people I know don’t run in them circles.

So, if you’re looking for a new circle of friends, I’ve compiled a short list of things you can try to find that new circle of cool muthafuckas like yourself.

Join An Interest Group

What brings people together more than groups! Nothing. What’s the basic ingredient of friends is that you all have the same interests (usually). Although NYC is home to over 8 million people, it’s a completely unsocial atmosphere. The only ones who will voluntarily talk to you are the ones you don’t want to.

Take A Class

Volunteer

A rule of mine I’ve always adhered to is never befriend coworkers, and I’ve stuck to it. Coworkers usually end up being very terrible choices for friends because not only is there motive for them to stab you in the back when a job opportunity comes up, but also because, well they’re your fuckin coworkers. I personally don’t want to volunteer to go to work, nor do I want to volunteer to see someone from work while off-work. But if it’s the only method of communication with people you have, then might as well do it as a volunteer. Not only is there no competition really because you’re not getting paid. But also you’re working towards a goal that you both generally want to be there for, so how cool is that? There are a gajllion places in the city to volunteer your free time to so ou can check out the NYC Volunteer Opportunies.