Sometimes my friends and family will ask if it gets lonely traveling around the country by myself. I always tell them no. I also have tons of readers ask me if it’s easy to meet new people on assignment. I always tell them yes.
Fortunately, I have friends or relatives that live in almost every state. So typically, I will reach out to them when I take an assignment and we will meet up at some point. If we are in the same city, we will hang out quite often. Even though we don’t have the chance to talk on a regular basis, meeting up in person allows us to rekindle our friendship.
In addition, I am lucky because some of my friends or family from home (Miami) will go out of their way to visit me while I am on assignment. For example, my mom visited me in Washington, my sister visited me in California, my friends visited me in Maine, California, Texas, and Virginia.
Even if I didn’t already have so many friends and family, I would say it is quite easy to meet people while traveling. I have found my co-workers to be very welcoming and friendly. They invite me to their homes for holidays, on hiking trips, on their boat, or out for a simple lunch. I end up keeping in touch with a lot of my co-workers after I leave.
I wouldn’t say I am the most gregarious person but I effortlessly meet people outside of work too. I became really good friends with my landlord in San Diego. He was around my age and we hit it off right away. I have also had neighbors befriend me, strangers that approach me at the gym or when taking a class.
The GroupMe app is a popular way to meet people with similar interests as you. You can meet up for group runs, dance classes, or even book clubs! I have some friends that use tinder to meet people in each city they travel to. Others I know will volunteer or join a local church and meet people that way.
So those of you that are afraid to start traveling ‘alone’, don’t let that hold you back. You can easily make friends wherever you go. Nowadays, there are so many different outlets to meet people.
