Making new friends at the age of (almost) 30

I was 29 when I moved to Toronto and I had (and still have) a big family and many friends back in Israel. Some say too many. 

Friends are like collectables to me: I find them and I keep them. They're all special and I do a lot to keep them close. I also come from a big family and have stayed in touch with most of them. Wanna know what it feels like to be surrounded by so many friends and family and try to keep track and maintain so many relationships? ask my wedding photographer :)

For me making friends has always been a natural process. I've never really given too much thought to how and why it happened. 

You go to school, you make friends, you keep some of them.

You go to the army, you make friends, you keep some of them. 

You go to University, you make friends, you keep some of them. 

You start a new job, you make friends, you keep some of them. 

Boy, that's a lot of friends. 

And then you move to a different country and they're all left behind. I mean they're still your friends, your safety net, the people you share everything with, but they're not physically here. And there's the time difference too. So now you need to schedule Skype calls or calculate the hours and have enough battery on your phone just so that you can check in with your friend. And it's hard, because they can't just come over for a coffee anymore. Soon enough you realize that you need to make new friends. My hubby is nice and everything, but I really enjoy seeing other faces too.

How do you make new friends at the age of 30? you actually have to work for it. It becomes a thing that you need to do now. And some conversations are forced, and a lot of it is not fun, but you need new friends. So you find them. Even though you're too old for this s#%t.

You talk to people at work, all the time,

You interact with friends of your friends.

You invite new people over, event hough you're not friends (yet).

You go to MeetUps. Holiday parties. You ask friends from Israel to introduce you to people they know in Toronto. You find them,

It is hard, and sometimes you get lonely, but then a stranger find their way into your heart and you realize that you just made a new friend, a real one. So you introduce them to other friends of yours, and if you're lucky enough they become friends as well.

You celebrate the Jewish Holidays together, mark the non-Jewish ones too (cause who doesn't like to party?), go on vacations together, and soon enough you have a group of friends who are like family, and when being asked "How did you guys meet?", you really can't remember cause it feels like they've been there your whole life.