How to Make Friends in Your Twenties

Posted on: August 23, 2016

If you’re anything like me, once you hit your twenties, things started to get a little bit different in life. You’ve just graduated college, and for the first time in your life– you don’t see your friends on a daily basis. The college bubble makes it so that you practically hangout on a daily basis, but once those twenties hit and everyone around you (including yourself) starts becoming full-fledged adults, the friends who were once by your side are suddenly living in different states, getting married, and working 40 hours a week. It all happens so fast that it leaves your head spinning– as your life undergoes this strange metamorphosis into something called adulthood. So how do you make friends from this point forward? While this isn’t an end-all be-all list, hopefully some of these tips can help you get back out there and start some great new relationships!

Don’t Be Afraid to Make Friends Online!

While there are plenty of good dating sites to meet people; this isn’t what we’re talking about here. The internet is a place that makes the world infinitely smaller, and a place for kindred souls to connect! In any given day, you can have conversations with people from multiple different countries that all happen to be interested in the same thing that you are! Sites like Reddit literally have forums for basically anything you can think of. Get on a forum and meet some like-minded people! Join Facebook groups for things you’re interested in, and interact on there! 10 years ago, people basically thought that meeting others online was just for middle-aged singles looking for a partner, but let’s face it, we’re in 2016 and social interactions with people we’ve never met is commonplace. Whether you’re talking to people on a YouTube video comment section, or your friend tagged you on a random Facebook post, you can’t really avoid interacting with strangers on the internet anymore. Why not embrace it? Personally, I’ve made some of my best friends through the internet; just by naturally interacting with them.

Know Which Friendships to Maintain, and Which to Let Go

The sad reality that you’ll face in your twenties is that not everyone in your life is going to be around forever. People go in different directions, and life keeps going. Although relationships can be hard to let go of, if you’re the only one putting any effort into maintaining the relationship– it may be time to consider letting go. This doesn’t mean you have to burn the bridge though. Learning to let go of these relationships will help you be more open to finding new ones and moving on in life. On the flip side, some friends are there to stay with you through thick and thin, and those friends are the ones worth keeping.

Don’t be Afraid to Go to Places Alone

For some reason in our culture, people just don’t normally go to places alone. However, by going to places by yourself, you’ll have a better chance of meeting people. When you’re going to the midnight showing of the next Star Wars movie, try going solo (pun intended) and see if you can strike up a conversation with a fellow fan. Communicating with random people isn’t as hard as you may think, and who knows, you could legitimately meet one of your future best friends by doing so. You never know what life will bring you, but you have to be open to the possibilities that it could bring you.

Just Be Yourself

This one seems obvious, but it actually needs to be said. When you’re in your twenties, there’s a lot of pressure coming from all angles to be something and to do something. You’re stuck playing catch up with friends you hardly see anymore who always ask you about what you’ve been up to, your parents want to see you use that degree you don’t know what to do with, and you’re just trying to figure it all out. The pressure to appease all these people and society (generally speaking) is huge! It’s easy to get lost in it all, and lose the real you.

Be yourself, keep living your passions, express the real you, and you’ll naturally attract the kind of people that you want to be around.

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