Making Friends

[15dec]

I might be starting an apprenticeship at a restaurant/pub soon and drop out of college. It's pretty exciting I guess, except my social life will probably come to a standstill. I'm 17, so most people I'd be working with would be considerably older and wouldn't exactly be considered my friends due to the age gap.

I've got some friends now but I only see them at college, it's pretty rare for me to see them outside of that already. So starting an apprenticeship would mean never seeing them and losing contact. Which means I'd be friendless, and obviously I want to avoid that.

So.. how would I go about making friends if I started this apprenticeship? I'm stupidly paranoid and awkward and as far as I know the youth groups in my area are more for younger teens. I don't have any real hobbies or anything like that either, I'm.. pretty boring, honestly.

Edit: I'm starting a part-time job soon and one of my friends works there too, so it's not completely awful, providing I can juggle the apprenticeship with the job. I'm still anxious about what would happen if I couldn't carry on with my job, though.

 

[SweetSide]

Well you've got THE question.
Lots of people in this forum have troubles to make friends.
So unfortunately, I don't have any solution to this problem.
However, do you want friends or acquaintances ?
It's not the same thing.
In a job, you can make acquaintances more easily than friends.
A true friend is rare, an acquaintance is more common but less valuable.

 

[SkyBlue]

I have to admit I don't have any utterly satisfying answer atm, and I don't want to spam you with unripe and untested advice. My bet is that finding something you like doing, and finding a group of like-minded people would be the best - joining a club, sports team etc. Also my experience is, that if there is anything worth maintaining, there's a significant chance it'll outlast changes like this. Maybe you can discover some more ways.

On another note: I only just read your education thread not long ago, and now you already seem to be on a new track... I'm glad you can find something good in it, but... whoa, things are moving so quick with you. Is there really absolutely no way of saving your education? I have a similar problem, and I've been wracking my brains out. Better is always better...

 

[15dec]

I have to admit I don't have any utterly satisfying answer atm, and I don't want to spam you with unripe and untested advice. My bet is that finding something you like doing, and finding a group of like-minded people would be the best - joining a club, sports team etc. Also my experience is, that if there is anything worth maintaining, there's a significant chance it'll outlast changes like this. Maybe you can discover some more ways.

On another note: I only just read your education thread not long ago, and now you already seem to be on a new track... I'm glad you can find something good in it, but... whoa, things are moving so quick with you. Is there really absolutely no way of saving your education? I have a similar problem, and I've been wracking my brains out. Better is always better...

Thanks for the advice :) I'll see if I can find anything like that. And yeah, you're right about valuable friendships continuing, hopefully some of mine will if I do get the apprenticeship. But I think I'd lose contact with almost everyone at least :/

I have no idea, if that first placement doesn't count then I'm screwed. The apprenticeship will still get me qualifications at least, it'll just take a bit longer. I've got an interview but nothing is set in stone yet so I'm mostly looking for advice in advance in case they do hire me.