Try talking to the people you see who are actively weird.
I tried that a week ago. I now have this kid who just might be repressing some homosexuality following me around whenever he sees me (it’s the repression that I have a problem with, it manifests itself by him scaring the hell out of me and talking about obscure mythologies and creepy myths all the time, he seems to have serious psychological problems. He’s one of those kids who no one will talk to, so he gets creepier and creepier the more he’s left in isolation, and then a feedback loop happens. I talked to him out of pity and regret it).
I like the advice, in general. Are there additional filters I can apply?
Not exactly a filter, but if you make friends with a person who is awesome and who seems to have a lot of friends you should try to hang out with them as much as possible. Most of my friends end up being from friends I already had.
People who are in bands or theater tend to be fun, I like most people I’ve met who play Capoeira, Women with piercings and dyed/shaved hair tend to be more fun to talk to, and most people I’ve met who are in math programs or math graduates are awesome. As always, your mileage may vary on this sort of advice.
You said in another comment that you like gaming. Local game stores often have websites where they post information about which days of the week they encourage people to come in and play various kinds of games, from boardgames to minis to TCGS. Some even have pickup roleplaying groups you can just drop in and out of. I definitely recommend googling {Your Town’s Name} + game store, or looking at clubs run by your college. Even if your college seems too small to support subcultures they probably exist anyway.
I think it’s also helpful to look outside your immediate age group for friends. Many of my friends and most of the people I like best are several years older than me, because when I was meeting them around age 18 or whatever i found everyone around my age intolerable. Similarly, though you probably don’t want to hang around high schools you shouldn’t necessarily dismiss someone because they’re younger than you. This will probably make it harder to date though.
I tried that a week ago. I now have this kid who just might be repressing some homosexuality following me around whenever he sees me (it’s the repression that I have a problem with, it manifests itself by him scaring the hell out of me and talking about obscure mythologies and creepy myths all the time, he seems to have serious psychological problems. He’s one of those kids who no one will talk to, so he gets creepier and creepier the more he’s left in isolation, and then a feedback loop happens. I talked to him out of pity and regret it).
I like the advice, in general. Are there additional filters I can apply?
Not exactly a filter, but if you make friends with a person who is awesome and who seems to have a lot of friends you should try to hang out with them as much as possible. Most of my friends end up being from friends I already had.
People who are in bands or theater tend to be fun, I like most people I’ve met who play Capoeira, Women with piercings and dyed/shaved hair tend to be more fun to talk to, and most people I’ve met who are in math programs or math graduates are awesome. As always, your mileage may vary on this sort of advice.
You said in another comment that you like gaming. Local game stores often have websites where they post information about which days of the week they encourage people to come in and play various kinds of games, from boardgames to minis to TCGS. Some even have pickup roleplaying groups you can just drop in and out of. I definitely recommend googling {Your Town’s Name} + game store, or looking at clubs run by your college. Even if your college seems too small to support subcultures they probably exist anyway.
I think it’s also helpful to look outside your immediate age group for friends. Many of my friends and most of the people I like best are several years older than me, because when I was meeting them around age 18 or whatever i found everyone around my age intolerable. Similarly, though you probably don’t want to hang around high schools you shouldn’t necessarily dismiss someone because they’re younger than you. This will probably make it harder to date though.
Friends are a much higher priority right now. Thanks for the good advice.
You’re welcome. Having gone from basically no friends to quite a few I feel like I owe it to past-mes to help em out