Making New Friends and Purposeful Connections
I'm social and enjoy having a busy schedule full of activities, adventures, and meet ups. Traveling full-time from place to place with a husband that believes in the “one activity a day” rule means that sometimes I have to scratch my activity itch solo—unless I can make a connection with a new friend.
Oftentimes this means finding friendly folks wherever I am that are willing to hang out with someone that will be gone a month later (and one that speaks English since I am foreign-language challenged!). As someone that strives to have purposeful, intentional interactions with the people in my life, this can be hard. Say what you will about social media—and I have plenty to say about it—it's provided some great opportunities for me to connect with amazing people that share similar interests. For example, as we bounced around the US this summer, I've been able to meet up with other gals interested in hiking through Facebook groups like Girls Who Hike and Hiker Babes. And the group Girl Gone International has chapters in a ton of major cities. In Capetown, (pre-covid) I had brunch with a group of gals and a hike with another.
Hanging out with my friend Kate in Denver.
As we live this nomadic life, we are connected to new and interesting people via friends connecting us with their (local or traveling) friends, too. It's a big piece of travel for me—meeting all these people with such different tails to tell!
It can certainly be exhausting when you’re constantly trying to coordinate and meet up with new people, especially when you’re only in a place for a month or two. I prefer one-to-one or small group interactions, so sometimes meet up groups can be overwhelming. That is just to say that it isn't always easy to get out the door and meet new people, even when I know the end result will probably be100% worth it.
Bouncing around the world can make it hard to stay connected to my existing friends and family, too. I've learned to be more purposeful in my interactions with them. Reaching out directly to check in with close friends and family instead of scrolling social media in hopes of getting a glimpse of what someone has been up to gives me so much more joy.
As we get back on the road to our more exotic locations, I'm looking forward to connecting with new people and experiences, but I'll be striving to stay in touch with my friends and family. I send out a lot of picture postcards. Sadly, many don't make it to their destination (the mail around the world isn't the best 😕🙄), but if you do get one, I always appreciate a quick “hello, I got your postcard” text/WhatsApp/Facebook message/etc! But you don’t have to wait until you hear something from us. We love it when close friends or even our most loose acquaintances reach out directly to me (and Jim!) to see how we’re doing.
