So I struggled with this even when we were in Flagstaff, this making friends business. The difference, there wasn’t necessarily a need for friends. Yeah, mommy friends are always good, they get it! They get what your talking about when you mention that your sweet sweet baby decided to have a party in their crib every hour the night before. Of course other people can sympathize, I am not in any way saying that the friends we have were not appreciated, trust me they are SO appreciated. Our family as well, we spent most of our time with our family which also made our need and desire to make friends much less of a priority. We also had limited time and realistically we were fighting for time as a family and I was pretty selfish of that time.

With that being said, when we moved to Juneau, we knew no one. We had no one in the same town as us we could call and meet up for coffee with. After about a month of me and BB being pretty invisible to the outside world D suggested we start looking to make friends. And so it began….

At first I wasn’t trying that hard, the thought of putting myself out there and asking someone to be my friend FREAKED ME OUT!

Any person I would talk to for an extended length of time (2 minutes) was automatically considered my friend. I really don’t mean to sound so desperate here, just truthful. Did I know their names? Usually not. After about a month and a half I had collected 4 “friends”. There was the repair guy (nope didn’t catch his name) we chatted for a good couple hours about Juneau and all the things we can count on encountering in Juneau. He was very nice and it was nice to talk to another adult! I’m sure D appreciated hearing about anything other than what BB and I did all day. Second there was a girl at a local outdoor store who basically talked our ear off for about 45 mins one day when we were just looking around. No name, I have seen her a couple more times but I am not sure she connects the interactions. I can’t imagine how many people she talks to in a day! Next was an incredibly kind gentleman who owns a leather shop under where our storage unit was. He invited me into his workshop one day and showed me everything he did. Really neat work, really nice guy! If you want to show some love to someone who made us feel really welcomed, check out his website. He has really neat work and makes it all by hand. I met him, his wife, his daughters, and his father in law. I plan to share a little of what I do with him some day with a plate of cookies or cake or something yummy to thank him for his genuine kindness! And Fourth, a very kind lady at a spin class. I didn’t catch her name but she sparked a conversation with me and really made me feel less alone.

This was my ragamuffin group of friends. D continued to encourage me to go to baby and me classes or Turf for Tots or any activity he heard about through work or online or any of his sources. He on the other hand has had no trouble meeting people and if anything making “friends” or aquaintences. The problem I had was all of these people approached me or initiated the conversation. The problem I was having was approaching people.

Its funny I have this problem given I have a degree which is all about people and talking/interacting with people.

I constantly asked D how I should go about making friends, after all the last time I really put myself out there to make a friend was kindergarten and I snorted to make that friend. Not a tactic that will probably work as a 23 year old.

Finally, I sucked it up and went to the baby and me class at our gym. It was fun, awkward, BB had a blast, and I saw friendship in a really kind outgoing person. I still wasn’t so sure about how to approach the whole “wanna be friends” part but figured I would go back and just hope for the best. This gave me the courage to look into and attend a “new parents” class. It was like a light was turned on. I met moms, they were so kind, and they all had little ones around BB’s age!!

That day, when we picked D up from work I swear I was like a little kid. I couldn’t stop talking about how great it was to be out with other moms and to be around nice people who were in the same situation or a similar situation as me. There was one particular lady and her sweet daughter that I connected with. I wanted to get to know her she seemed like we would really click. We continued to be brave and go to more and more events like this.

After a few times people started asking us to do more things… like going to the pool, or going on hikes.

I am happy to report that I have a few potential friends….

We are going to continue the hard work of playing with other babies and chatting with moms and hope for the best! It is sort of funny to me that although we are in a pretty peculiar situation (not knowing anyone here) and I still find moms that are in the same place as me trying to find other moms and kiddos to make friends with.

It is sort of crazy the difference having people you know in your neck of the woods makes. We are fortunate enough that we have also been able to keep our old friends, back in Flagstaff, or even elsewhere in the US.

I feel like this is a proud moment for me, the awkward girl made friends! You hear that mom I am growing up!!