Communities aren’t just the group of strangers you meet at your yearly neighborhood block party, they’re everywhere!
Throughout the pandemic, feelings of disconnection from friends and loved ones were common from social isolation. The silver lining in a dark moment in history was that we got the chance to reconnect with ourselves. To bide our time, we reconnected with past hobbies or started new ones. Now that we are getting closer to what we knew as a normal way of life, don’t give up the hobby that made you happy, now’s the time to expand on it!
1. Take Small Steps
When you picked up your guitar out of the dusty attic it’s been in for the past several years, you might have had the vision of mashing incredible solos that would make everyones’ jaws drop only to realize you forgot how to even tune it. Over the past year, you’ve picked up some skills and now have a decent understanding of your craft. You spent a good amount of time getting to where you are today. If showing your hobby to others seems daunting right now, think of the smallest thing that can move you in the right direction. If you want to start rocking the guitar in front of a group of people, maybe start off recording yourself playing a song you’ve learned and sharing that with some close friends to get feedback while not having to play live in front of strangers just yet.
2. Find Others That Share Your Passion
The best learning comes from sharing experiences with others. Perhaps you’ve dabbled in Skill Share or Masterclass this past year to learn a new skill from the professionals. While that is always a great place to start, practice makes perfect. And going off that, practicing with others who can give you feedback to enhance your craft is even better! You can also learn from their mistakes and the ideas they have learned along their journey.
3. Be Open with Yourself and Others
Finding new friends at any age is tough for many. The nagging thoughts about whether the person sitting across from you will accept you or not is one thing. It can be even more uncomfortable when sharing your new hobby that may not be that polished yet. While it is easier said than done, try to be as open as you can to build trust in your new relationship. You both have been through a lot this past year, and who knows, maybe they feel the same and have gone through similar hardships.
But… getting back into the normal swing of things can be tough. We have learned to become independent during our time alone and maybe we don’t feel like having to go through the social struggles of trying to fit in once again. While it’s nice to be face to face, it’s also nice to be able to continue our hobby on our own. The best part about being on your own though is that there will always be a community at SquareOffs.
In 2020, research conducted found “online groups are significant contemporary organizations that can generate impact, and provide their members with a strong sense of community and belonging, despite not operating in physical space.”
SquareOffs is building a platform to help you reconnect with others who share similar passions and hobbies. Having personally rewatched all the Avengers films several times this past year, I can tell you first hand that thousands of others have as well and want to discuss all our heroes’ failures and triumphs.
Getting back to the social life we once knew can be tough, but the first step will set you on the right path. Find others who started baking bread during the pandemic and see where your culinary efforts take you. No need to binge Netflix all by yourself, binge it with friends! The list is endless.
One great way to start is Discord or Reddit, the modern day forums. You can easily create and share SquareOff questions out to the community as well to have others join in conversation around trending topics. Here’s how to get started creating your first SquareOff question and some content ideas.
Whatever your interest, go out into your local community and online and find others who feel the same to get you on your way to a great post-pandemic way of life.