5 Ways To See Your Friends More Often

There are eight hundred kajillion weird things about being in my twenties, but here’s just one of them: I have more friends now than I have ever had in my life (which isn’t, like, that hard of a thing to accomplish. I had four friends in high school and basically zero friends in junior high). However, now that I’ve got all of these great friends, I never get to SEE any of them. Sometimes six months will go by (or even a YEAR will go by). I’ll think, “But I really LIKE this person so much that I probably LOVE this person! How come I haven’t seen them in eight months?”

I’m not IN high school or college anymore. They don’t live on my dorm floor. We don’t swipe our student IDs to get dining hall breakfast. I said goodbye to college many, many years ago, There’s no structure set up to ensure I regularly see my friends. And between making sure I get all my work done, paying my bills, writing my secret dream projects late at night and hanging out with my husband and family, kicking it with friends is just one of those things that gets placed pretty far down on the list.

Still, I’ve been trying hard to figure out what DOES get me hanging out with my friends and I’ve come up with a list that actually gets me out of the house, off my computer and out with all my best pals..

1. Get Together Every Week To Watch A Television Show You Guys Love

I recently found out that I am not the only one I know who is madly and passionately in love with “Bachelor in Paradise.” Six of my really good friends are also crazy-bananas-nuts obsessed so we made a plan to watch the finale together. And I’m thinking to myself, “Why didn’t we watch THE ENTIRE SEASON together? It’s an hour and a half a week, I’m going to watch anyway, and I’m going to have way more fun shouting at the screen with friends than sitting alone in my room shouting at my laptop screen.”

2. Get a Group of Friends to Try New Restaurants With You

I have another group of friends and every six weeks or so someone sends out an e-mail saying, LADIES, let’s HANG and EAT. We all scramble to pull our iCals up and wind our way through a maze of conflicts to get to that delicious meal. I don’t think I’d see all these girls regularly (and certainly not all at the same time) were it not for this food-directed e-mail chain. Last time we ordered EVERY cake on the menu and ate dessert like grandest of queens.

3. Organize Holiday Parties/Events For Your Friend Group

Holidays are the greatest. I’m a total freak for them. I threw a Christmas party last year and saw 30 people I love to pieces all at the same time. You don’t have to throw every X-Mas/Valentine’s/4th of July/Halloween bash yourself, but if you are the point-person in making things happen, you will see and celebrate with all of the people you like AT LEAST every few months.

4, Let Change In Your Life Lead To Reconnecting With Your Peeps

I just got a dog and he’s my world. All of a sudden, I remembered, “Oh, I have other friends with dogs. We should plan play dates for our dogs and use it as an excuse to hang out.” If you’re studying for the LSATs, it’s a chance to reconnect with friends who are doing the law school thing. If you move across the country, you all of a sudden get to hang out with your friends across the country.

5. Facebook Friend Fishing

There’s probably a real name for this, but I don’t know what it is. If you REALLY want to go to an event like a concert or play and your go-to dates (for me that’s my husband and parents) are busy, just post the event up on Facebook and ask who wants to join you. The trick here is you have to make sure you actually LIKE all your Facebook friends and would be cool with whoever buzzes in and says they’ll be your date. But you’ll probably end up getting to hang out with friends you normally wouldn’t by playing this game.