1. Make plans with other people.
2. Don’t bail. Rinse and repeat.

But for real, finding ways to volunteer for your personal interests - whether online or in person - is the best way. It will connect you with other similarly interested people, give you a bit of responsibility so they see you’re trustworthy and how you think, and once you are “work-friends” you can invite them to personal things also like going on a hike, watch/discuss a movie, go to an event, co-work, play a game, etc. The most important part is, of you say you’ll do something that they’re relying on you for, you gotta do it or communicate before hand why you can’t. Community is just a group of people with similar interests that trust each other and communicate.

As someone with a 5-year old, please define “children,” because that is definitely not how they see their friends. They had one other child at 2.5 years, in preschool, who they both just naturally GRAVITATED to each other - not because they were getting anything out of it than mutual friendship. That friend has since moved away, devastating, and they do have other friends, but all other friendships pale in comparison. It’s been amazing to watch how true friendship will just blossom randomly in the world.

This. I have run fundraising offices in multiple cities. There’s often one or two “trashy” people in each office, who could learn people’s names but don’t, who insist that everything they do is perfect and others need to change to see it, who love being loud and living large themselves but won’t respect other’s choices or beliefs even in shared professional spaces. They litter. They steal from people they know. They often hide behind a veneer of religious faith, to deflect criticism. They refuse to learn, or reflect upon their actions with anything but praise.

Have a very large vocabulary and go out of my way to avoid utilizing the same noun or adjective more than once in a conversation. Also keeping multiple conversations on different topics going at once with any people in the same room, a habit I learned/inherited from my ADHD physician mother who was always on calls while talking to my brother and I and also making dinner at the same time.

Gotta make the nest! I do this when sleeping alone, and also will lift my feet for just a moment to let the blankets swing under and complete the human burrito feeling. I just love to feel completely held, supported, nested, wrapped.

Note: not MTF

If you’re light skinned, oh yeah does it work. I used on my legs for 6 weeks, once a year for 2 years in a row, and now the hair that did regrow is so much thinner and lighter that I didn’t even shave this summer. Whoever is saying it can’t be used on face - not true, get one with a facial attachment. Whoever is saying it takes a long time or isn’t effective - I was shaving weekly anyway (which you have to do before each treatment) and lasering my legs I got down to 20 minutes; it’s not much extra time but it had a drastic effect on my comfort level going more than 2 days without shaving. Doesn’t work on my darker private bits but for legs, body, pits, and face, it was a complete game changer for me. I got the Braun silk expert pro 5 back in 2023. I would look for one with a better continuous-pulse now, but am otherwise quite satisfied.

Get a hot tub. My partner and I are both tall and both love to relax in hot water. Now we get to submerge our tense monkey bodies in our personal hot spring and just float any damn day we want to, for as long as we want to. It’s great for our relationship. Plus, foot jets! We spent $7k on ours- a true luxury- but it was one of the best health / self care purchases I’ve ever made in my entire life.