Being Single

Before you can begin or continue dating, you have to work on yourself. Are you ready to be in a relationship or are you ready to “hang out” or whatever random in between euphemisms people use these days.

Improve Yourself

So before you start dating, you may want to try to “improve yourself” or at least make your self “interesting”. What that means is have something to talk about when you’re on a date other than work and Netflix. So here are a few suggestions:

Volunteer

Obviously, you know volunteering is good. There’s a lot of options for you in the city. The thing about volunteering is that it usually gives you an opportunity to meet people not like you–mostly senior citizens but they give the best advice! The museums are always looking for help.

• Baltimore Museums – This gives you the opportunity to learn all about the art/history, plus if you work hard, you’ll end up getting invites to the fancy donor parties! If you’re into animals, don’t forget about the zoo and aquarium!
• Baltimore Businesses & Non-Profits Needing Volunteers – Be anything from a youth debate judge, mentor, chef, or track inventory in your neighborhood.
• Baltimore Homeless Shelters and Food Banks – You’ll have to call ahead or check websites to find out volunteer scheduling.
• Baltimore Events – Artscape, MD Film Festival, and all those parades… They all need volunteers. Look into when they all start accepting volunteer applications and be a part of it next year!

Join Alumni Groups, Professional Associations or Employer Organized Groups

If you feel any affinity towards your alma mater, your job, or are just feeling lonely, it could be a good idea to reach out to groups specially designed to be inclusive and you’re automatically accepted into! Just like meetup groups, associations exist for many niche groups, plus many have the added benefit of helping you advance your career.

Attend Classes & Workshops

If you live anywhere in Baltimore, you probably live no less than 2 miles from a university, be it UB, Hopkins, Loyola, MICA, or all the community colleges. All universities will let you take a class or two even if you’re not looking to get a degree or you can sit it on a guest speaker.

If formal school is not your thing, there’s a class or workshop for damn near everything. Check out the Creative Alliance or Red Emma’s for talks, lectures and workshops on everything from feminism to beer making. Decorate your house with what you learn to make at Clayworks, Baltimore Print Studio, Baltimore Foundry, or Corraddti Glassblowing. Learn to swing dance at Mobtown Ballroom or improve your acting chops at B.I.G., Single Carrot or Everyman Theatre. If none of that quite does it for ya, Sugar in Hampden will teach you how to give awesome blowjobs, now that’s an applicable skill if I’ve ever heard one. I could go on but you get the point… Just take something that interests you and you’ll have something interesting to talk about.

Work Out

I’m not really a fan of the whole… sweating thing but if that’s what you’re into… you could go to a gym. There’s a bunch in the area, and you can likely get a membership to any of the university gyms for a cheaper rate. If you’re less of a gym rat, you can take up Cross Fit or yoga. If waking up early, interacting with other people and running is your thing (you are probably really intense…) then try The November Project, a weekly drop in running group. Or if you only want to give the appearance of working out (and live in South Baltimore), you can flip cup and day drink through Bocce Ball, Kick Ball, Skee Ball, and more with Baltimore Social Sports.

Make Some Friends

In order to be a well-rounded, not insane individual, it’s probably a good idea to make some friends. If you’re new to the area, have friends moving on/away, or have any other reason why you may be short on friends, work on getting some new ones! You’ll need them to send SOS messages to during first dates, cry during breakups, and send Snapchats of your cat when you’ve given up on dating for the 3rd time in as many months. So where to find them?

• Meetup.com
  There’s a meetup for everything and organized by location! Some of the larger groups can be a bit overwhelming, so start with something a bit smaller. I found one that was specific towards my neighborhood and attended as many events as I could. Ones that are run well will have newsletters or a Facebook group so you always know what events are happening (and what is going on in your neighborhood). The best part about Meetups is that everyone is usually in the same boat as you, seeking new friends so it’s easy to connect!
• OkCupid.com
  Yes, it’s a dating site but there is that option to select “New Friends”. I know you’re thinking, no one actually makes friends on OkCupid. Well, I have! One weekend, I searched through OkCupid profiles of a bunch of females in my area that checked off looking for new friends to find some that I thought seemed cool. I messaged three girls and one messaged me back! We ended up being really great friends!
• Facebook
  This is really great when you move to a new city because you can ask your current connections if they have any friends in the area. Or, if you remember so and so lives nearby, reach out to them and ask them to grab a drink.

Note:

Obviously, there are tons of places to meet new people like at bars and parties but the issue there is, most people aren’t keen on attending places like that alone. So start off places where it’s not uncomfortable to be alone and then make at least one friend to go to all those parties and events with and meet more new people!

Learn More:

• Guide To Socializing And Meeting Friends At Meetup.com Events (Succeed Socially)
• How To Make New Friends as an Adult (Reddit)
• Why It’s So Hard to Make Friends After College (And What to Do About It) (Lifehacker)