Human interaction in NOVA (Arlington, Alexandria: HOA, school, live)

[Midwest_Madame]

Where can I meet down-to-earth, honest people in the Arlington/Alexandria/DC area?
How do people make friends here?
My bf and I have gone to meetups now and then but for some reason its difficult to make friends.
I've never had this much difficultly meeting new people.
As some of you may know, my experience in this area has been far less than perfect but I think if I met a few good people with knowing, things may not be so bad.
Any suggestions?

[spencgr]

What do you enjoy doing? Start there......

[Midwest_Madame]

Originally Posted by spencgr

What do you enjoy doing? Start there......

I like doing a lot of things.... in fact I can only think of one thing that I don't like doing--anything involving heights. I'm pretty open to new things though.

[NOVA_guy]

Have you tried maybe the gym or someone I work with told me they met people doing their yoga classes. Like the other poster said, you should start with what you enjoy doing and naturally you'll meet people with similar interests but I know that's still easier said than done.

[airjay75]

If you are religious at all, I would suggest church or other applicable place of worship. For myself and my wife, that is where we have met most of our friends. Of course, churches and places of worship can vary greatly in many respects, but we have found it to be a very easy way to make friends here in NoVA - actually, much easier here than previous places we've lived.

[leighland]

Originally Posted by airjay75

If you are religious at all, I would suggest church or other applicable place of worship. For myself and my wife, that is where we have met most of our friends. Of course, churches and places of worship can vary greatly in many respects, but we have found it to be a very easy way to make friends here in NoVA - actually, much easier here than previous places we've lived.

^^

[ChristineVA]

I've met most of my friends through work. I don't find random "meet ups" to be conducive for me. Friendships are built on commonalities and repeated interactions through those common interests. For me, I get to talking to people at work day in and day out and through that, the conversations segue into personal interests. Most of my best friendships were formed that way.

As others have suggested, the way to actually make friends is when you are already otherwise engaged in something that you like (or don't like!!!) and you share that commonality with the others who are doing it with you. That would include work, church, exercise groups, book clubs, etc. I think it's hard to click with people when you just sort of meet up for the sake of just meeting up.

[Yankeesfan]

Volunteer your time with something that's meaningful to you; there are endless possibilities. You'll have a common bond with those you're working with, plus you'll have something substantive to talk about, rather than just idle chit-chat that might be awkward or not lead to anything deeper. Good luck!

[jillybean720]

Those I would consider friends locally I've met in one of three ways: work, HOA meetings, and local moms group.

It definitely can be tough in this area, especially when you're starting from square one (moving to the area new as opposed to having family locally, having grown up or gone to school here, etc.). I had a handful of friends I'd met through work at a few different jobs. Last year, we moved, and for whatever reason, I decided to become involved in my community, so I started attending monthly HOA meetings and then joined our HOA's activities committee. This connected me with others right within my HOA, a few of which I now *gasp* see/talk to outside of just those HOA meetings.

The moms group is obviously not something everyone can do, but it's true what they say that having kids will make you friends. I randomly joined a group on Meetup for new moms about a year and a half ago, and we're now a pretty tight-knit group of moms who get together (sometimes with the kids, sometimes without), help each other out, etc.

Prior to having moved and had kids, I had tried finding good groups on Meetup and such, but nothing ever clicked. Heh, now that I have two young kids and no time to go out and socialize, I have more opportunities to do so :P

[marie5v]

It's notoriously difficult to make friends around here. It took my husband and me many years. We have made most of our friends through work, and others through those friends. In the past I also made friends through volunteer work and at the gym. The thing I found is that trying hard to make friends didn't actually work and didn't make it happen any faster. It just happened over time, sort of randomly, on its own. You might need to just get involved in some activities and focus on that instead of trying so hard.