30M, trying to be social/date in Lakeland. Where do I go?/What do I do?
Using a bit of a burner account since a couple online/IRL friends follow my main account, and I don't feel like having this conversation with them as an audience.
I'm 30M, work remote, and am trying to get out of the house more. I'm not into bars, clubs, drinking, or sports, which immediately evaporates a ton of the normal options, and dating apps have been a complete dead end for me. I'm quiet, nerdy, introverted, a homebody by nature, and have had essentially the exact same small friend group for 15 years, and most of them are as antisocial as I am, so it tends to make this rather difficult for me.
I'm looking for real suggestions of places I can go and things I can do that give me some actual social/dating surface area, but also something with a bit more direction than "just be social and it will happen."
Some interests you might use to suggest things in no particular order:
- Visual Arts (drawing, painting, printmaking, etc.)
- Miniature Painting (I print and paint a lot more than I actually play)
- Gaming (I know, shocking, the nerdy homebody is a gamer, lol.)
- Cooking
- Gardening/Canning
- Maker-type things
- Airsoft/paintball
- 3D modelling/printing (both artistic and functional)
- Programming
- Game Dev/Modding
- Walking/Hiking
Some things I don't do actively or haven't ever done before, but would like to learn/try:
- Welding
- Metal casting
- Woodworking/Carpentry
- Building cosplay
- Blacksmithing
- Hunting (never hunted before)
- Indoor rock climbing
Just because something isn’t on these lists doesn’t mean it’s an immediate no, but high social anxiety options like dance classes or karaoke probably aren’t a good fit for me.
Are there any local recurring events, classes, groups, etc. that fit any of that or sound like they might work? I've looked around, and maybe I'm just bad at searching, but I came up empty. I'm not new to the area, lived here most of my life, just new to actually trying to be social.