As one who is by nature quiet and reclusive, I shock even myself when I say with all sincerity: I am ready to socialize.
They say to everything there is a season, and the season is upon us. In high school I was thrust into throngs of my peers, who instead of feeling pressured to socialize with, I felt inclined to avoid. In college it was sometimes the same and sometimes the opposite, and many of my contemporaries shunned me for one reason or another. I left with a good number of friends, but none who would call me social.
After college I took a job teaching at a tiny school in a tiny town in a tiny state. There weren’t many people to socialize with on a good day. I ended up with two or three good friends and we hung out maybe one day a month, sometimes less. And at the time, that’s what I needed – to be left to my solitary self.
But now?
Time for a new chapter! It is time… to be social once again. It’s a new feeling to be excited to hang out with people and to spend time mingling with people I’ve only just met. As a matter of fact, I’ve done more socializing in the past week and a half than I’ve done in the past two years combined.
Thursdays are going to be my favorite days. A friend of mine has invited me to come with a group that gets together at a pub to shoot the breeze and drink and smoke and converse and make merry, and it was indeed merry. I honestly had the best time and I can’t wait for it to be a regular thing for me.
I also did something much more difficult – though I’m not sure why that was the case. I hung out with future coworkers who live around the corner from me. I’m not sure what about it was more of a Tessa-Challenge. There were friends, new and old. There was alcohol. There was a relaxed atmosphere. Sounds fairly like my Thursday encounter. But it wasn’t. We had a great deal of fun sitting around a pool for hours throwing back beers and bullshitting about all sorts of things before retiring to Grace’s apartment to watch the Olympics.
So I suppose it’s strange but I don’t at all mind that I find myself with the great opportunity to meet lovely new people and that I am relishing the enjoyment I’ve so far found in their company. This is certainly the beginning of a new chapter, and one which I hope lasts quite some time. The best part, of course, is how welcome it is to find adventures so close to home. Onward and upward!
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