be more social

I’ve been trying really hard to be more social at work this year. Two months ago, I wrote an entry about going out to lunch with four co-workers – but I wondered if they only invited me to be polite, because I was right there in the same room while they were discussing it.

But Wednesday, two of the girls were going out after work and they sought me out and invited me along. I was so excited because I feel like I’ve made so much progress!

Over the summer, I went to a weekly trivia night with some friends at a restaurant/bar and it was a lot of fun. So I’ve been trying to get people together at work to do trivia nights. One of the girls in my department was really interested, but it was hard to find anyone else. We tried to get it going 5 or 6 times, but we could never get anyone else to commit to going.

I told her we should just give up, but she said that after all this time and energy trying to set it up, we had to do it at least once, so we set it up for this week, and we were able to convince two other people to go.

So the four of us met at the restaurant, and did the trivia night. We didn’t win, but it was fun to go out with coworkers. And even if we never do another trivia night, maybe this will lead to us doing some other activities together.

I work with four people who are all young and got hired at the same time, so they all bonded with each other quickly. They seem cool, and I’ve gotten to know one of them, but haven’t had much of a chance to get to know the others yet.

Today the four of them were going to lunch together, and I was right there when they were discussing it, so they asked me to go. (I don’t know if they would have looked for me if I hadn’t been there, but I was right there, and it would have been awkward for them to not invite me.)

I had my lunch in the refrigerator, but I figured, Who cares about the lunch I brought, wouldn’t it be better to be social? So I went with them and got to know them a little bit better. I’m hopeful that I can become better friends with all of them because work would be more fun if I had more friends there.

I joined an adult kickball league that plays once a week. Our team is really terrible, but it’s still fun and I’ve gone to Happy Hour with my teammates after two of the games so far.

My closest friend at work is moving to Boston, so I can’t lean on her any more. Now I don’t really have a choice but to be more social.