Nazra - 00:00
Hey everyone, my name is Nazra. I'm a Gap Year Ambassador and I'm here to help you out with some tips on your Gap Year journey. This video is on how to make friends on your Gap Year.
Now, I know that when you're not in school and you don't have a lot of people in your immediate environment, it can be really hard to find people who you might want to hang out with and become friends with.
So in this video, I have two types of major buckets of tips that I would like to give you. One is where you can find friends and how you can make friends and then the second is how you decide to be friends with someone who you want to be friends with.
Nazra - 00:30
So to jump right in, where can you find friends? We're trying to make new friends.
I have a few organizations that I might list. None of these are sponsored by the way I've just used them personally, or have friends who have used them and highly recommend them.
So when making new friends, I highly recommend trying to find communities. Are there people in certain communities that you would really like getting connected to? Are there artists?
Nazra - 00:50
Are there tech people? Are there people who play badminton that you would really like getting connected to?
The first step I would say is try to find a Facebook group or an Instagram group or any clubs in your area that either are not school related could find people in that when you do a quick Google search is actually a lot more accessible than you think. So, trying to find certain communities of people in the city going to their meetups, trying to join their Facebook groups, and even messaging people individually that you see on the groups to hang out. Now, one thing that I would say with all of these is just make sure to confirm that the person is real. Definitely try to go to some of these with a friend with you.
Nazra - 01:28
You can also check if people are verified. Make sure that you're keeping your safety in your mind as you are going to meet us as well.
Next is Yes Theory. So Yes Theory usually has groups within cities, Facebook groups or Instagram groups. For example, Yes Theory LA, Yes Theory Toronto, Yes Theory SF, Yes Theory Winnipeg etc. You'll find a lot of young people especially who are in these groups who are just ambitious or interesting and are doing a lot of fun things who want to meet other people across the city who might be also taking an unconventional path, who might also be on a Gap Year.
Nazra - 02:02
There's a lot of people in a group of that similar vibe, and so you might meet a lot of really interesting people there, and I'd highly recommend checking out Yes Theory.
The other is Bumble. Which is usually used as a dating app, but there is a section of Bumble called Bumble BFF and I actually highly recommend it.
You can find some really interesting people in the city and that's exactly a place to be making friends and people on Bumble need to be verified as well and so it's also a much safer place to find friends and I would highly recommend that as well.
The last kind of app or website that I would recommend is just Meetup.com, it's classic place to meet up with different people of different interests. It's also classic place to find communities and I would highly recommend checking that out too.
Once you've tried to go to all these places to meet new friends.
Nazra - 02:49
Another thing that I would recommend is you might not be in university but I bet some of your friends are and it's definitely possible for you to actually join in on some university type clubs or meetings. Sometimes they do let people in that don't actually attend the university themselves.
So it highly recommends seeing if you can be invited to some Hangouts or some parties or some coffee meetups with your friends to meet friends and try to meet people, especially if you're in a university or college town in person through your peers.
The other thing is actually trying to hit up some people from high school, middle school or elementary school that you might jam out with.
Now I know it might be a little awkward to do so or it might be a little intimidating, but I promise I have actually made a lot of friends that I didn't really hang out with while I was in school with them.
But I thought they were kind and I thought they were interesting and gotten coffee with them later and it's been a really great and fun time and I've actually made few close friends through that, so I would also try going through people that you know, and your acquaintances and old friends and trying to respark some of those connections as well.
Nazra - 03:50
Now for how to really make friends and decide who you want to be friends with. This is something that I actually think about a lot. It has to do with your values and I really like to see and figure out who I'd like to be friends with depending on value alignment.
So not just interest which is one thing that you could be doing to see if you want to be friends with someone, and obviously trying to have a good time together. But, also thinking about your values like who are the type of people that you want to be friends with.
For me it's like people who are authentic, people who are helpful, and just coming up with a potential list of values or things that are important to you.
Nazra - 04:26
I just find that it really helps to know your values and also gauge and know other people's values so that you can see if there's even longevity in the friendship.
But it also depends, and this is something that's important to figure out too. Is what type of friendship do you want? All type of friendships I think are OK and it's just really dependent on what you prefer. So do you just want to hang out with people and just have a really fun time and have people that you can go help with and enjoy a cup of tea or a cool brunch with would you like really, really deep meaningful connections and people that you can spend a lot of time with or spend little time with but feel like you really connect to and that both of you guys listen to each other and hold space for each other.
Nazra - 05:07
That's also really awesome. It can be shared in a lot of different friendships, but figuring out what type of friendship you want, I think is also helpful.
This last bit of advice is when you actually end up having conversations with people. I find that it can sometimes be hard for a lot of people to spark conversations, keep conversations going.
Sometimes we feel a little social anxiety and nervousness, and it's also especially hard considering the pandemic and that a lot of us maybe haven't even spent that much time with people over the past few years, especially in person.
What I would recommend is carrying around a box of a game called “We're not really strangers”, also, not sponsored, but I just love the game.
Nazra - 05:44
It's a really great game to become friends with people who actually aren't strangers. They might actually be strangers. That whole premise of the game is that you can really become friends with and get to know people a lot faster.
So I would highly recommend seeing if you have a box of “we're not really strangers”, or if you aren't able to get a box of the game, another thing that I find really helpful is I often Google questions to ask people deep, meaningful questions to ask people insightful questions to ask people when trying to get to know them and if you Google that, you'll probably get a bunch of lists of questions to ask people.
Nazra - 06:22
And I start building my internal repertoire of questions that I actually want to know about people, and I go through these lists and I note down internally some questions that I find are really interesting, and so that's actually been a really, really helpful thing for myself when I'm trying to meet new people and make new friends.
So I'd highly recommend doing that as well and taking a check at those lists. So yeah, those were my quick tips. I hope this was helpful.
Nazra - 06:49
If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. Please also subscribe to this channel. That you don't miss out on any of the other informational tips that are going to be coming your way.
Please also make sure to check out the description box below. It's going to have some great resources for you to check out as well. And yeah, I hope you have a great day and. Have a fun time making friends. Bye catch you on the flip.