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Whether you are looking for friendship, penpals, lovers or life-long partners meeting new people can be quite tricky, and in some cases quite daunting. If you are looking for that one special person, or expanding your friendship base, you may find the following hints helpful.
Things you can, and should do, to meet new people:
Meeting new people may be a case of doing the things you enjoy or trying new things. You will probably find you become stronger friends/lovers if you have things in common. It may be that you:
- Say 'yes' when people invite you to go and do things - you never know who else might be there
- Take opportunities to go to parties where you meet new people.
- Volunteer your time to a charity etc.
- Join a sporting club
- Join a book club
- Take a course at a community college (like learning a language or doing an art or cooking course)
- Walk your dog in the local park (or borrow one!)
- Start random conversations with people in the street or on the bus or train
- Learn to dance
- Hang out at the youth centre
- Surf
- Be fun to be around
- Be reliable, a good listener and most importantly-Be Yourself.
Things you should not do, or at least do with CAUTION!
- Chatting online is a great starting point for meeting new people, but please be cautious.
- Always take a friend with you when you are meeting someone new, and always meet in a public place. Do not invite them to your home. They might seem nice online, but the reality is that there are a lot of liers and con artists out there.
- Do not give away too much of your personal details until you have met them in person.
- Do not put your name, address, phone number and personal details on the net, where they can be viewable by other people.
- Reserve your opinions on people you meet, until you get to know them. Don't be too hasty to judge people by their looks, dress etc.
- Remember that the person you are meeting is probably just as nervous as you. Give the person a chance to impress you. It might take until the second or third meeting before their true personality shows through.
- Don't be too rigid in your ideas of your 'ideal' person. Allow for some flexibility.
- Don't put yourself into any situation where you might be at risk. If you feel uncomfortable or disturbed, by someones demeanor, leave straight away.
Please be wary, and keep the following in mind:
- Remember, never leave old friends because you like someone else more. This is a big, bad mistake. It's great to have different groups of friends, but if you abandon one group for another, you may soon find yourself without any friends at all.
- Don't be afraid to stand up for what is right. If one of your friends is doing something that you know is wrong, confront them. If you're a friend, you won't let them do the wrong thing.
- Be careful about getting together with people that you meet online. They might not be who they say they are.
- Don't try to buy friends by giving people gifts or money. While it's nice to give a friend a gift sometimes, if you go overboard it's creepy. A person who will "be your friend" because you buy him or her things probably just likes things, not you.
Now for the less serious do's and don'ts.
Do's
- Do remember to clean all orifices before meeting someone new.
- Do remember to put on your pants. Sitting at the computer in your undies might be fine, but for a real date, you need the pants too!
- Remember your new friends/lovers name.
- Manners, smile and flowers.
Don'ts
- Do not eat garlic beforehand.
Do not let off gas from eating that garlic I told you not to!
Do not leave your wallet at home!
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