Meeting New People.
Well, here we are, almost two weeks into our lives here in Colorado. This past weekend was eventful; filled with activities, new people, and outdoor adventure. Moving to a new place is thrilling; we are exploring new places in the area and attending every event we can find but it comes with challenges as well. Building a new support system can be a daunting task. Weekends filled with awkward conversation, small talk, and endless forced laughter can become rather exhausting. This past weekend, I found a handful of activities for Erik and I to attend in hopes that we would bump into a couple new people to potentially call friends, or even acquaintances.
The weekend started off with a bang! I found an event called “First Friday” which was downtown Denver in the art district. We found ourselves making our way to the city a bit early to grab a drink before the event started. I found this little bar nearby that looked quaint and lowkey, so it seemed right up our alley. We walked in and settled into two chairs at the bar, looking around in amazement at the place that we had discovered. It was tucked away so discreetly, if we weren’t looking hard enough we would have never found it. As we looked past the bartender, we gazed at hundreds of records that were displayed on a bookshelf behind the bar. We watched as she plucked a record from the collection, she gently rested it on the record player and listened closely with her headphones to see if it fit the tone she was looking to achieve. Some records did not make the cut so they were carefully placed back into their sleeves and returned to their place on the shelf. She was in her element, enjoying every second of the journey to find the right album to play next. We sat and listened to the music, discovering new artists that were meticulously selected for that very moment.
As we sat to enjoy the ambiance of the newly discovered bar in Denver, we enjoyed our Japanese inspired cocktails and some light conversation with the bartender taking care of us. We discovered that she was from Iowa and moved here a couple years ago. Her and Erik started chatting about film photography and their love of vintage cameras. Perhaps this wouldn’t be a lifelong friendship, but in a new place it is nice to interact with people along the way that may share similar interests. Sitting there listening to the music and sipping on our cocktails, time seemed to slip away from us. We soon realized that the event was underway so we cashed out and made our way to the first event as Colorado residents, First Friday.
We sauntered through the busy streets of Denver, popping into various galleries to see what they had to offer. As we walked into each gallery, I was shocked at the artwork we discovered. Mediums being used that I would have never known would be possible. We sat down towards the end of the night to enjoy some live music from Emelise Munoz, this girl’s voice was unbelievable. She was a mix between Janis Joplin and Nora Jones, with a beautiful natural rasp that cannot be taught. We were not the only ones mesmerized by her voice, there were people dancing on the sidewalk or watching in admiration at what this young woman was capable of. Anyone that walked by seemed to be entranced by her sound, almost forced to stop to enjoy the music being produced.
The next day, Erik and I made our way downtown yet again to attend a social event I found online. It was a gathering in Washington Park to play some lawn games and meet new people. Now, typically this is not my thing but I figured being in a new place we had to make an effort to meet new people. Since I am working remotely, I have to be intentional about going out to social events and putting myself out there. It was definitely fun to get out of the house and chit chat but again, I’m not sure if we met anyone that would be a lasting friendship. As we stood around sharing stories, we quickly came to realize that most attendees had also recently moved to Colorado and they were looking to try something new to get out of their shells.
Once Sunday rolled around, we were both pretty tapped out socially. Done with small talk for the weekend, we decided to find a nice hike to go on in the Boulder area. We made the short drive to Centennial Trail and embarked on the first hike with just the three of us. As we climbed higher and higher, we finally reached the top which looked out to plush greenery and rolling hills. Erik and I stood there taking in the sites while Lucy took the opportunity to lay down and rest her eyes before the descent.
It took about two hours to complete the hike and by the end I felt tired, yet refreshed. To know that we have trails like these at our fingertips is part of the reason we decided to make the move. Lucy has probably never been so tired in her life but you can see she is enjoying every step of the journey right alongside us.
Although the events over the weekend were great, they were also a bit of a drive from our apartment. We found ourselves driving 20-25 minutes each way to attend these events. That is all fine and dandy but we both agreed that we should find some local activities since gas isn’t the cheapest thing in the world right now. The hunt was on for something social and local to get us out of the house. BINGO. I started researching bars in the area that offered weekly trivia and I found a small brewery about a mile from our apartment that had trivia on their events calendar. Last night, we all got into the car and drove over to Westminster Brewery for some fun bar trivia. The nice part about Colorado is most places are dog friendly so we dragged Lucy with us and it was a hit! We didn’t do well in trivia but we also didn’t come in last place which became our goal pretty quickly. We met a nice couple sitting nearby that were originally from the Chicagoland area and moved to Colorado about four years ago. This could become a consistent activity to get us out of the house on a Tuesday and get to know more people in the area. We just have to keep putting ourselves in situations to meet new people and spark up conversation when we can.
As an adult, meeting new people can be challenging. No one ever talks about the struggles of adulthood trying to find a new friend group but… the struggle is real. The goal is simple though, find one friend. Perhaps not a bestfriend but just a friend to enjoy a cup of coffee with and share a genuine laugh. My standards aren’t incredibly high but boy do I hate forcing a laugh when I truly don’t think something is funny. We’ve all been there at some point in our lives. So cheers to genuine laughter and finding a quality friendship here in Colorado.
“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” ― A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
