One of the most wonderful things to happen since moving to Davis was being invited to join a bookclub by my (then new) friend Melissa. People often ask me about it—how did it begin? how did you all meet?—and the truth is that I think about it often. Melissa and I were both fairly new to town, meeting for occasional playdates (remember Hudson’s ‘girlfriend‘?), when she suggested that she was going to invite some of the women she’d met to start a bookclub, asking them each to bring a friend.
It was a brave thing to do—and I think about it often because it’s inspiring. She opened her house to a group of women—most of us meeting for the very first time—and we got to know each other over a bowl of questions before selecting a first book to read. At first our conversations centered around birth stories—now, the ups and downs of parenting young children figure prominently as something we all share; we’ve become real friends over reading everything from Lean In to Gone Girl, And the Mountains Echoed to Big Little Lies—and mostly not reading a few selections, too.
When asked about how to make friends in a new town, I point people to Melissa for inspiration. Sometimes you have to be brave.
She is moving to Atlanta in a few weeks and boy, we’re going to miss her. But I have no concern for her making friends.
Do you have any tips you pass along to others about making friends as adults?
Check back: coming up later today, a post about the simplest dessert plate (i.e. what I brought to share at the last bookclub).
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