Meeting new friends in mid-20's

LegacyUser

hey, im getting really freaked out as I have lost contact with most of my friends from school and im finding it hard to get people to go out with. Im 24 and single and Im spending most weekends at home. I seem to be just working,studying part time and nothing else. Its kinda starting to really get me down as Im thinking it will always be like this and I have a long way to go to 30.... also im a bit self concious about meetin up with people from school as I think they have all moved on with their own friends and I would feel like an outsider. Any help from anyone? Im from galway by de way

Firetrap

Where are you living? I found when I moved out from home and into a house with some others that I met people through them.

I find too that if you join a club or take up a sport or do voluntary work, that you can meet people that way. Anytime you get out of the house and into a situation where you have to hold conversations with other human beings is an opportunity to make friends. You said you're studying part-time - is it a course where you physically sit in a classroom with others? If it is, and not a distance learning course, there might be people in your class who are nice. Don't assume because they're not your age that you can't be friends.

I'm in my 30s and I've found that friends come and go as I move through life. I'm not in touch with any of my old classmates (doesn't bother me tbh) and I've stayed in touch with some of my college friends. I think my experience would be the same for most people - that at certain stages of your life that you're friends with people. Sometimes you lose touch, sometimes you don't.

Why do you feel self-conscious about your old classmates, by the way? Ok, sometimes you will find that you've drifted apart from them and that you've nothing in common with them anymore but I wouldn't be self-conscious about that. If you think there's no common ground for friendship there anymore, move on.

LegacyUser

Don't stress about it.
I'm nearly 40, single and I'm still making new friends. Through work, through my existing friends etc. And I stay in alot of weekends.

LegacyUser

simple sport activitys etc thats how you meet people man there little point in going ohh im not meeting people... you gotta get out there jpoion clubs find a sport you wanna do and do it join a club best way of meeting new people...

Im 27 and im single, but then again if you live a busy life style and allways on the go weather its sports working or what ever it can be benofical.... so what id say is find some sporting activitys that your interested in...

LegacyUser

Getting involved helps, whether that be in a sports club, local festivals or in college.

I'm in my mid 30s and have recently made new friends through the sports club I am in. They aren't as close to me as my oldest friends but can be a lot more fun to be around. In fact, getting involved with new people made me look at some of the people I have been hanging out with.

I recently took the decision to "down grade" some old friends of mine so I don't see them as often as I used to. Realised that the only thing we really had in common was the length of time we knew each other and a mutual friend (my best buddy).

It's a lot easier to befriend people with similar interests and outlooks.

LegacyUser

hey, thanks for the advice, just to give some more information. Im living in a house wit other people in Mayo where I work but I go home at weekends to Galway. I took up tag rugby lasst summer and that was grand, met a few ppl but havent talked to them since the season finished. The class Im in is class based and the people in it are around my age so in theory there should be no problems there. I suppose the issue is really myself as Im fairly quiet when meetin new people and I used to have a crippling shyness which Im trying to overcome. I keep in touch with a few friends from college who live in different parts of the country, but again the rest of them Ive lost touch with. I suppose I would be a bit self conscious around meeting old school mates or new people because I see them having their own close friends and their own group while for me, its just me. I think if I was to hang around with them every weekend or all the time they might get tired of me??

LegacyUser

Im in exactly the same situation. Really, I would just like to feck off and travel but I am afraid to leave my job.

I am doing a course though and have met a couple of people through that. Will try to get into volunteering in 2009 but it is so hard because I am very quiet