I realized I have not made a real friend in almost 5 years and I genuinely do not know how to do it as an adult
I(36m) have people I know from work and old friends I check in with occasionally but nothing that feels like an actual close friendship I built from scratch as an adult. At some point I just stopped knowing how to initiate that kind of connection outside of a context that forced it like school or a job.
I am not a socially awkward person, I can hold a conversation fine and I genuinely enjoy people. I just have no idea where you even meet people at 36 when you are not in school and you work remotely. And even when I meet someone interesting I do not know how to move from acquaintance to actually spending time together without it feeling weird. How did you guys actually build friendships as an adult? Not just meet people but actually get close to someone. What did that look like practically?