At least, none that live close to me. My best friend lives 8+ hours away from me, and my boyfriend live almost 2 hours away.

The rest of the people I know are... acquaintances at best. I don't know anyone who lives near me who likes the same things I do, who can get geeked out about the same things I do, or who I can just hang out with in general and have a good time. Hell, I only even know one person here that's even close to my age. We've played video games together before, but he works all the time and is into things I'm not, like smoking (not just cigs) and getting drunk at parties with his friends. I don't have a problem with people who do this, but that's not my lifestyle. I was never a partier. The idea of getting drunk and not knowing what I was doing or where I was terrifies me, plus alcohol burns my stomach anyways. Basically, I'm a timid little geek who likes video games, anime, music, tv shows/movies, arts and crafts, and animals.

I moved to a new state with my mom when I graduated high school. To be fair, I never had many friends growing up either, but I thought things might be different here. So far the only people I know who like the same things I do are my boyfriend and his buddies (mostly the video games and anime/manga aspect) so naturally I get insanely jealous when my bf spends time with them whether it be hanging out or playing games with them online, but at the same time I don't want to butt in to his time with his friends and be seen as that crazy clingy girlfriend. I just want to be able to have fun like that too, to make memories with people, and just be happy and not feel alone or left out all the time when my bf isn't spending time with or paying attention to me.

I guess I don't really know how to meet and talk to people. The only places I ever go are to the grocery store, the best buy here, and the craft store. The place I where I live is a pretty large area. Not like a huge city like NY or anything, but still big compared to the rural town I grew up in where everyone knew everyone and were always into other people's business. The chances of me meeting and recognizing someone I see at the store are slim to none as I don't go to these places every day. I've had a couple of jobs here, but even then I never really made 'friends' just acquaintances. It was the same when I attended college for a while, but it was a big college, so again, just acquaintances.

Maybe I'm just horrible at socializing, or maybe I just have that kind of look to me where I just kind of blend in the background and people don't really "see" me. To be honest I don't even know how the hell me and my boyfriend got together. We met when I went to an acquaintances birthday party on a whim, and even then I'm still baffled about how it happened, or how I even got the courage to go to the party as I was freaking out the whole time (social anxiety, whee.) Anyways, I feel like that was just a one in a million chance, but my boyfriend, he has /tons/, and I mean /tons/ of friends, so it makes me wonder if maybe there's something wrong with me.

Bleh, anyways, sorry, I felt like venting. My bf is gone tonight hanging out with friends and here I am bored and feeling alone... :c

do you have a facebook account ? literally so many of the friends i have made were by adding random ppl on facebook and starting a conversation with them... but i really know how you feel. I have maybe 2 friends besides my boyfriend and i rarely talk to them because i am so busy with work+school+other things. i'm kind of the opposite if you though because i actually really like being alone by myself and just videogaming+doing stupid shit on the internet. people really tire me out sometimes. having friends isn't that great either! I used to have a shit ton of friends that I would hang out with every day... but they turned out to be really fake and talked bad about me behind my back while claiming that i was their best friend. i don't like dealing with that stuff nor do i have the time+patience. so having no friends besides your boyfriend isn't that bad trust me! i spent my whole life in front of a computer only having friends through the internet.. and that's fine with me. be grateful u have a boyfriend tho (: friends aren't what its all cracked up to be.

Hey, I know exactly how you feel. I'm going to counseling for social anxiety and depression tomorrow. It really sucks, and I've been trying really hard lately to make friends but its not quite working. I am not that great at advice but if you would like I wouldn't mind hearing more about yourself! Hopefully things get better. It seems so hard nowadays to make friends when its easier for people to keep to themselves.

I know how you feel, too. Going into a new situation and meeting people and making friends can be so intimidating - I don't really understand how some people can do it all so easily. There've been so many times where I tried to put myself out there and just totally failed at doing anything I wanted to. But, I know it won't get better by sitting around and waiting for things to happen...

Since you said you live in a kind of populated area, have you looked into clubs or groups for hobbies that you like? Sometimes card/game shops will have people looking to start tabletop game groups and that kind of thing. I've seen public libraries with groups for manga or video games. The university closest to me has an anime club that's about half actual students and half random other people, so maybe you could find something like that. Or maybe you could do some volunteer work for a cause you're interested in? Like at an animal shelter or park or something like that. I think it's definitely easier to meet people if you start with groups that have some common ground. A lot of times clubs will have special meetings for new people thinking about joining, which could help if you feel out of place just randomly showing up. In that circumstance, they're asking you to go, so it's gotta be okay, right? :)

I'm from a rural area too, so I understand what it's like living in a place where everyone already knows you and then moving to a place where everyone's a stranger and you feel like no one ever notices you. But, living in a bigger city means there's a better chance to find other people with similar interests, so that's a positive. Also, living in a place with more people means that if you try to meet people and do something that makes you feel like an idiot, there's a good chance you'll never have to see those people again... That helps give me courage to try things sometimes ^^;

Ultimately I think you just have to try different things and accept that it might or might not work. Being by yourself isn't a bad thing, but, it sounds like that's not giving you what you need right now. There's definitely nothing wrong with you c: Probably more people are in your same situation than you know.

Hmm, a club is a good idea :o I had no idea they actually had things like anime clubs and such. When I was out today, I did get a sign up sheet to do some volunteer work at an animal shelter, so hopefully that will go well c:

That's true c: Ha, I always do worry about that, but you're right x)

Thanks so much, reading everything you said really made me feel better ^.^ I'm going to start looking around for those clubs you mentioned. I always knew they had clubs for people that like sports and such, but never put it together in my head that there were clubs for other things that weren't exclusive to students.

Aww, I hope your counseling goes well! I tried it and it never seemed to work out for me because I could never find a doctor I was that comfortable with, and it takes me months to get close enough to someone to start talking in close detail about my problems and not feel stupid or awkward about it. That's not to say yours won't go better than mine though, I think that's just a quirk of mine, but I do wish you the best of luck! I know it isn't easy :c

Yep, I do have a facebook, but it's mostly for keeping up with and talking to the people I know in person, like family, and maybe a few people I used to know from my old hometown. I've talked to strangers a few times on there, but it was pretty much just chit-chat and I never connected with anyone over facebook. I know how you feel though, when I was younger I never wanted to be around anyone because people annoyed me and I would rather have been playing my video games or just relaxing at home, but now that I'm getting older it's starting to change. I don't need a ton of friends, just people I can enjoy spending time hanging out with or joking around about stuff.

I think that's one of the things that is unfortunately not talked about enough: how hard it is to make friends once you're an adult. Because no one talks about it, a lot of people end up feeling really alone. :c

I second the idea to find something you like to do: gym, sports clubs, volunteering, book clubs, whatever. At first, you'll just be showing up to showing up to do the scheduled activity, but you'll make friends like you do when you're in school: just by hanging around the same people long enough.

Best of luck, dear! <3