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Talking to 35 Strangers at the Gym

thienantran.com · 4,597 words · saved by 3 readers

A couple months ago, I was the Wizard of Loneliness. I had graduated from college almost two years prior and, while I had luckily found a job, I was unsuccessful in finding friends. Each night, I would look up “how to make friends after college” and find the same advice given every time: “do your hobby with other people, frequently”. On paper, the gym seemed like the perfect opportunity to meet people since I would go there nearly every day; however, according to Reddit, there’s a number of people who want to be left alone and can be irritated if you interrupted their workout to talk. I am deeply afraid of irritating someone or being in awkward situations. Here’s a list of things that I did as a result of that fear: Hesitated for a couple minutes before waking up my roommate when the fire alarm went off Pretended I didn’t know a childhood friend when they said hi because I didn’t know how to act around people I used to know Ignored people I knew from class instead of saying hi because

Talking to 35 Strangers at the Gym Published: May 1, 2026 Updated: May 9, 2026 Background A couple months ago, I was the Wizard of Loneliness . I had graduated from college almost two years prior and, while I had luckily found a job, I was unsuccessful in finding friends. Each night, I would look up “how to make friends after college” and find the same advice given every time: “do your hobby with other people, frequently”. On paper, the gym seemed like the perfect opportunity to meet people since I would go there nearly every day; however, according to Reddit, there’s a number of people who wa

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