 Hey y'all, what's up? My name is Snolli. Welcome to my channel. You guys are new here and if you are, definitely hit that subscribe button because I make a lot of Austin content. And if you're already subscribed, make sure your post notifications are turned on so you never miss a video. It's been a little over two years that I moved to Austin, Texas and ever since I've been here, I get so many people asking me how do you make friends in a new city? So I wanted to put together a whole video just on ways to make friends in your new home. Whether it's getting an offer letter from your dream job in a new city or deciding that your life needs a little bit of change and deciding you want to move somewhere else. The first thing you should do is to ask your friends and family in the current state that you live in or in your hometown if they know anyone in the new city that you're moving to. You can always use Google to find out, you know, referrals on where to live in Austin or where to eat or what to do in Austin. But it's just a good feeling to get recommendations from people who you know or even through a friend of a friend. I personally didn't have any family when I moved here and I actually moved here without visiting but I didn't know a couple of older people that went to the same college as me so I was able to just ask them, you know, how is this apartment complex? What's this area like? And they gave me all those recommendations and it's just really helpful hearing it from someone that you trust. The second thing I did once I found out I was moving to Austin was I joined so many Facebook groups like any Facebook group I could find that was Austin based. I was moving here as a photography and videography freelancer so I just went and searched Austin photographers or, you know, Austin videographers. I wanted to get into wedding photography at the time so I searched that and found a couple of style shoot Facebook groups and then one of my favorite Facebook groups that I found was because I actually listened to the Morning Toast at the time I was obsessed and they have a bunch of listeners so they had a list of sub groups and Facebook groups that you could join whether you like TikTok or whether you watch this one reality show so there was actually a sub group for Austin listeners not only were the people in that group really cool but we had this common bond because we all listened to that podcast. There's another Facebook group called Girls New to Austin and there are just a bunch of like business networking kind of Facebook groups too all it takes is a quick Facebook search and you should find what you're looking for. I definitely recommend that you stay in the know of what's going on around your city whether that's free events, happy hours, or grand openings of stores that are popping up. For Austin specifically, there are a bunch of Instagram accounts that tell you what's going on daily or, you know, what's going on over the weekend and Austin is such a booming city that there is always something to do. One of my favorite Instagram accounts is When Wear What Austin it's literally the most basic blue boxed feed but they are the most informative of what's going on around the city then there's also 365 things Austin, Austin, Texas things and there are also so many food Instagrammers that you can follow to know exactly where to go to get the best food around town. Before going to these events, I would reflect on what kind of a person that I could see as my best friend and then go to events kind of relating to that. So for example, if you're sober or just don't really like going out that much I would recommend going to a free yoga event or something more active and just less of the drinking scene. Not only is Austin just a friendly city in general but they are extremely dog-friendly. You can pretty much take your dog anywhere to bars, to stores, shopping, anything. I've never really heard someone say that I couldn't bring Sophie into somewhere which is crazy. It's definitely different in other cities. When we visited Houston and Dallas we didn't see as many dogs out and about but Austin is a whole another world when it comes to dogs. That being said, pretty much everyone has a dog here and a great way to make friends and meet other people is to go to dog parks because having a dog is a huge icebreaker. It is so easy to ask like what's the breed of your dog and just kind of start talking like that and people again in Austin are just so friendly and if they have a dog they like other dogs so they're gonna want to talk to you about dogs if that makes sense. One of my favorite places to take my dog Sophie is to go to Auditorium Shores. It has a stunning view of the city. You can also see the water. It has an amazing trail that goes through it and there's also just a big grass area where you can just play ball with your dog and chill, watch the sunset, that kind of thing. And then we have Zocer Park which is definitely one of the most well-known ones. This also has a great view of the city and it's just so fun to see all the dogs running around. You can also play like volleyball here if you're into that. They have like a lot of just like people bringing their own game soccer and everything like that because this place is like massive. Another great way to make friends is to join a fitness class when I first got here to Austin I started doing orange theory fitness and I would literally like scope out my class and see who's around my age and try to stop them after class to like make small talk or you know my go-to question would be something like how long have you been doing orange theory? Something like orange theory it might be hard especially if you're doing like a morning class because they might be in a rush to get back to work even though orange theory is like a group fitness class I feel like you're kind of in your own bubble so there are definitely more group fitness classes that you actually talk to each other maybe at 45 or something like that but definitely a good way to stay active and meet friends at the same time. One of the ways my friends made their friends is just living at their apartment complex and using all the amenities whether it's going to the gym using the study spaces hanging around in the common areas or again taking your dog to the dog park if you guys watch my vlogs you know that I moved into a new apartment complex within the last two months and I've been trying to go to their monthly resident events I didn't really go to that many at the last apartment just because I feel like at that place there were like families that were living there or just like older people that were living there but now I'm in my new apartment complex I definitely feel like all these people are more around my age definitely motivates me to participate in the resident events so I'm definitely going to force myself to go to more it can be intimidating at first but it's just good to know people in your apartment complex just in case you need them at some point I've actually heard a couple of success stories from people using Bubble BFF if you guys didn't know Bubble is a dating app but they actually have a section where you can find friends in your area which is so cool I actually tried using this two years ago when I just moved to Austin and I was getting a lot of people that were still at college at UT so they were like 18 or you know like a little bit older and I was just looking for people obviously who were out of college and kind of in that post-grad life so that's why I kind of gave up on it but I wonder if there's like an age filter now or how that works I definitely think it's worth looking into this next way is definitely easier said than done but you can always Instagram DM someone that you see that lives in your city maybe you're looking at some new restaurants and you're looking at their tag section and see someone posted about it I would recommend doing a little bit of stalking just to find out how long they've been in your city because if they are new just like you they're most likely in the same boat of wanting to find friends but if they've been here for like two or five years or 10 years I'm guessing they probably already have their friends but honestly shoot your shot because you never know what could happen lastly go out and explore your city whether that's you know going and doing the touristy things or going out to rainy street or West 6th Street I'm not saying go get hammered but I will say that a little look would encourage sometimes does help my biggest piece of advice for someone who just graduated college you know they're moving to their first city post grad getting into that lifestyle is to put in the effort if you're not going to try to make friends they're not going to magically come to you unfortunately because trust me I kind of thought that way I thought they would just you know show up or I just meet them wherever I go but if I didn't put in the effort of you know trying to meet mutual friends or DMing people on Instagram I would definitely not know as many people as I do now here in Austin making friends post grad is nothing like making friends in college I was personally in a sorority so it was easy to make friends because you were already grouped with people your age and you did have that common bond of being in the same sorority and you would see these people every day I lived in the sorority house for two years so I was living with 23 other girls and you know you just create bonds when you come home late at night eating ramen or watching bachelor in the TV room so it's really going to take a lot longer to make those long lasting relationships in this post grad lifestyle but making the effort is probably the most important thing the last thing I'll say is that when you do start making those friends always say yes unless you actually have something planned or you know you really can't go but don't start making excuses because you get nervous to go hang out with somebody new you never know what could come from that night you could be introduced to their friends or you can meet other people wherever you go and the more times you tell them that you're unable to come or that you don't want to come they're going to stop inviting you because they're going to think oh you know maybe they don't like me or you know maybe I should stop inviting them so definitely keep that in mind because you know there are people out there that are wanting to make friends just like you are but you know who wants to play as a friend I hope this video helped you find new ways to make friends in a new city and once it gets cooler I would absolutely love to plan some sort of meetup whether that's in Zolker or we can bring our pups bring some snacks I don't even know but comment down below if you live in Austin or if you are moving to Austin and would be interested in something like that if you're not already subscribed to my channel go ahead and subscribe now because I make a lot of Austin lifestyle content and I have a whole playlist with videos that I've made in the past two years whether that's recommendations on where to live in Austin or you know fun things to do in Austin so definitely go check out that playlist I will link it down below also if you guys are moving to Austin and are curious what the day-to-day life looks like here go follow me on Instagram because I have saved so many things to do here in Austin and most importantly what to eat in Austin all over my Instagram story highlights so go check that out if you guys have any more questions on how to make friends in the new city or anything about Austin my Instagram DMs are always open so I will see y'all in my next video bye