Moving to NYC is an exciting, and terrifying, thing. You’re in this amazing new city with a huge bucket list ready and waiting, but you don’t have your usual squad to rely on. Fear not, we’ve compiled a list of tips, resources, and tricks to finding new friends in NYC.
Plug in at Work
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Maybe you work at one of those places where you start counting down the minutes at 9:04am. You congregate around the water cooler listening to Chandler from accounting share his mediocre Michael Caine impression as your only relief from the boredom of the work day. If this is you, go ahead and skip to our next two tips.
If your job is like one of the many young, thriving workplaces across NYC, you might actually get on with the people you work with. After the first week of walking on eggshells and trying to control your weird around your new workmates, start opening up and reach out for drinks or activities outside of work.
Toe the line and maintain a work-first attitude, but make sure you have fun as well. Your work family could form the beginnings of a new friend group in a new city. It also goes a long way towards creating a positive, team-like work culture. Double win!
The Old-Fashioned Way is Over, Meet Some Digital Friends IRL
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There is nothing like fostering a new, budding friendship from an organic experience like meeting someone at a bookstore or the park… but let’s be real, nobody’s got time for that.
If you need friends on the fly, you could try one of the several apps and social media sites geared toward building new friendships. We’ve narrowed our list down to Meetup, CitySocializer, BumbleBFF, Brooklyn Brainery, and RentAFriend.
Of the aforementioned options, Meetup, CitySocializer, and Brooklyn Brainery are probably your best bets. The latter, Brooklyn Brainery, is our favorite. It provides accessible, crowd-sourced, community-driven classes from pottery to tapestry-weaving to satisfy your inquisitive side while making new pals in the process. These sites will help make moving to NYC a little less overwhelming.
Let’s Get Physical, Physical
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Sports and fitness have always been great ways to make friends. Toss a kickball into a gym full of kids, and they become best friends within hours. Turns out, not much changes as adults. Fortunately, we have apps and sites for that now..
New York City Social and ZogSports are two of our favorite resources for getting involved in intramural sports leagues after moving to NYC. These can be a great way to let off some steam from the work week or relive your high school glory days (just kidding, please don’t be that guy).
New York City Social is our best value option. The organization caters specifically to the social professional crowd, so intramural leagues have sponsor bars and end-of-season parties in addition to the games.
If that’s not organic enough for you, try it the old-fashioned way and join a gym or fitness club. You’ll make friends with the regulars in no time after the awkward, week-long period of sups and bro-nods.
Moving to NYC can be hard if you don’t have friends or family in the area. Sign up for sports or activities you love, get outside your comfort zone, and start bonding!
