Get Out There & Socialize

image by kalanicut

One thing I have noticed over the years it that fewer and fewer people are making plans with friends, inviting people to their homes or getting invited to other folk's homes. I hear this complaint often. I know some people who do invite people over who say they never get any invitations in return. So I'm throwing out a challenge to you today. Plan a social event. Do something with friends. Get together with people!

Last week friends of ours suggested getting together. Then proceeded the slightly uncomfortable dance of deciding what to do, when and what that meant. No one wants to step on anyone else's toes, make them feel uncomfortable or like they are being pushed into anything they don't really want to do. In the end we decided on a beach day. What we expected might be three or four hours at the beach ended up being a super fun day of biking to the beach, picnicking, playing smashball and frisbee, lounging in the sun and even catching several dozen crab-like creatures and building a small sand city with them that The Bug named Crabopolis.

No everything went totally smoothly. The husband of the other couple hurt his arm that morning so he needed to opt out of the bike ride. Then The Bug's tire went flat, so it turned out it was a great thing that we had a driver and car who could get us to the bike shop for a quick repair. Then we were on our way and no one was worse for wear although it delayed us a while.

When we got to the beach it was totally foggy and strange. It looked like we were on another planet. Later it cleared up and was absolutely perfect weather. We ate good food, had good chats, lots of laughs and a great bike ride on each end of the day.

We ended up making quite a day of it and had a lot of fun. By the end of the day we were all talking, planning other activities we could do together. Plus I was thinking about other people in our social circle that would be fun to include and get to know better.

It's easy to feel isolated when our world is so focused on work, busy-ness and communication via text message and social media. But getting together with people is awesome. I'm throwing out a challenge to you today to plan something, get out there and meet some new and interesting people. Get together with people who are of a different age bracket, who are and aren't married, who you have a lot in common with or have nothing in common with. It's a great adventure. I'm looking forward to our next get together with friends and won't let too much time go by before organizing something again soon.