Finding a Friend as an Adult is Harder Than it Should Be
As you know, I have recently branched out from just “working away” my life (albeit doing something I truly love doing), to pursuing my hobby of becoming a musician. I now sing, play piano, and am learning guitar. I wrote a song, and I am working on a musical. I love music. I love talking about music. I love listening to music. I love learning about music. And I want to go see a musical that my Songwriting teacher encouraged us to see.
Sounds easy, huh? Well, not so much. I have had the most difficult time finding a friend to go with me… I realized that I don’t know enough people who I would consider asking. So I started asking acquaintances. I just decided to ask anyone who I thought might be up for a trip to NYC for the day. I could not find anyone to go… and then I did find someone, and they decided they couldn’t do it, and my wife really doesn’t want to go, so I decided, “What the hell? I will just purchase two tickets and keep asking.” I did eventually find someone to go with me, thank goodness.
But the whole process was ridiculous. I know that there are tons of people out there who absolutely love musicals, who know all the Broadway shows by heart, and it should not be so difficult to find them. I tried going onto Meetup.com, the only website I know of that connects people with similar interests, but even there it was not easy. Many of the groups I liked were too far away, some were just online groups, and I couldn’t find anything about Broadway fans.
Enter my idea for the Collective. I know a lot of people through my dog business, and I have decided that I am going to start collecting names and hobbies and interests of those people, because many of them are great people who I would love to hang out with outside of work… but how do you approach someone as an adult and ask, “Can you be my friend?”
I was thinking about a Paint Night we hosted a few months back, and recalled how fun it was to just be in a room with other people who love their dogs and paint our pups on canvas together. I would never have known that these people had any interest in painting… so I want to see who else is out there that might share similar interests.
What sorts of hobbies do you have? Do you collect anything? I, for one, collect Boyds Bears (the plush ones, and only the boys - I know, it’s sexist, but I am not a “girlie-girl” type, so I just prefer my bears to wear pants and hats, rather than dresses and bows.) I also love skeleton keys, cast iron anything, especially dog-shaped doorstops, old sheet music, vintage musical instruments, and just old stuff in general. I love old photographs and postcards and stone-carved dogs (particularly the ones from Sandicast, designed by Sandra Brue). I don’t care much for ceramic stuff, but any doggie item will always catch my eye if it’s made of stone or cast iron or some other durable material. I love antique books, I really enjoy playing board games, and now I like to collect pocket watches. I am particularly interested in anything music-related, of course… what about you?
