The November Mission: Last Official Chance for “Meeting People & Creating Friendship Opportunities”

Clearly this title is not exactly true, but (true to form), now that we are a week into November I figure I should detail the November plan.

My mission, which I decided I have no choice but to accept, is to finish the first stage in finding some potential Forever Friends.  For the next few weeks, I will specifically focus on creating friendship opportunities.

Having recently begun a new graduate degree program, meeting people has been no great difficulty.  Creating friendship opportunities – however straightforward it may sound – is a bit harder, though.  What does it even mean?

I think it means opening the door to new possibilities, taking the step after introducing yourself and reaching out to give both you and the other person the chance to develop a friendship.  It means paying attention to what people are saying (listening for real!), taking the time to be thoughtful in your comments, your questions, your invites.  It means thinking about creative and non-creepy ways to open the door to friendship.  After all, people don’t typically become best friends in a single day.  Developing friendships takes time, shared experiences, getting to know each other and understand each other beyond the whole “I see you everyday so I know a little bit about you” type of relationship.

So here are the November plans to create friendship opportunities:

1.  Have meaningful conversations with 3 acquaintances (beyond the usual “how are you?” or “what’s the homework?”).  After all, I will never know if they are potential Forever Friends if we don’t start talking more!

2.  Get coffee or have lunch with someone I haven’t socialized with yet and who I did not know as of three months ago.

3.  Text two new people.  Yes, this will be awkward and a challenge for me, believe it or not, as I dislike using my phone and prefer to do almost anything over sending text messages.  Plus I never delete anything and my text inbox is always full, which makes receiving timely texts a problem…

Anyway, that is the November plan.  As a parting thought, here is a beautiful reflection on the joys of friendship from two characters supremely qualified to give such a presentation:

The Art of Conversation

I’ve often noticed that successful people are outgoing, comfortable talking to strangers, and easy in conversation.  The ability to strike up a pleasant, engaging conversation with just about anyone can come in hand everywhere, however, not just in the world of business.

I think I would like to develop my ability to converse successfully with strangers – after all, it seems like an important skill in finding and keeping friends!