how do you make new friends?
one of my goals for this year is to make new friends, or at least meet new people regularly to the point where i can see familiar faces now and then. it's something i've been trying to do in the past few months, and while it feels awesome sometimes to join community events regularly and interact with new people, it pains me to say that it's not all sunshine and rainbows.
meeting new people and getting to know them is exhausting, unfortunately.
i'm not sure i can pinpoint what exactly is the most exhausting thing. maybe it's the getting-to-know-someone phase that needs to happen over and over again. maybe it's the opening up to someone about myself (while i overthink and calculate about what i should, or should not, share). maybe it's the slight feeling of having to perform because i want people to have good impression of me, especially if it's our first time meeting.
it's exhausting. sometimes i'd rather hang out with the very few friends that i have.
i don't know... maybe instead of meeting completely new people, i should try meeting friends of a friend instead. maybe having something in common (which is knowing that mutual friend) would help? i'd love to hang out with people that's separate from my current friend group, but i'm not sure i have enough willingness to make the effort and get to know someone from scratch, or whether i have enough energy to deal with the fatigue of meeting new people.