a meetup meet up

It's hard to make friends when you don't have a supply of people that are just like you within arms reach (I'm talking about the high school/college/grad school bubble).  Your friends' life circumstances can change quickly, and if your circumstances don't change with them, you'll find yourself with a lot of really great friends that you just don't share life experiences with anymore.

I have a friend that this is happening to, see...  So this friend, in the interest of "putting herself out there" and "meeting new people," decided to not only join a meetup group, but actually meet up with a meetup group.  It was conveniently happening right in her town on a night that she was conveniently free, and so she plucked up her courage and did it.  It helped that it was a running group, something she does.  It also helped that they met along her normal running route, because she would have been running that anyway.

Here's what went down...  Waiting in the designated spot were two gentlemen both dressed in casual sporty (and dark - a big no-no!) attire.  She was a little bit early and so she waited to see if it was just the two of them or if another woman was going to be there too.  The thought of a dark run with two guys she didn't know wasn't the best laid plan for meeting new people.  Eventually two other women also showed up and off the five of them went.  It wasn't the most challenging of runs, but it was fun for her to run with other people, especially after some long, lonely weekend training runs.  The five of them didn't have much in common, but what they did have in common was running, getting fit, and having fun.  All in all, it was good for her to actually go (not get murdered) and to run with some other people.  It's a weekly thing, so she has assured me she will try and get there as often as she can.

Now, is she the only one who feels this way?  That when you get older it gets harder and harder to make friends?  And not just friends, but to find people who enjoy similar things that you do?  Perhaps other people feel this way too, but they are afraid to put themselves out there and to meet new people.  Perhaps there should be a new meetup club just for them.  And by them, obviously I mean me...