r/Glasgow Tools

I've only lived in Glasgow for just over 3 months so I can't speak about the city, really, but I have moved a fair bit over the years and think your experience isn't uncommon. The bottom line is that moving cities and making friends when you're older is actually very hard.

I grew up in Italy and when I first came to the UK (for University) I made a lot of friends, but the moment the graduation ceremony was over, everybody pretty much left town (Brighton). When I moved to London after that, it was hard to see people because of the commuting distance. Eventually moved back to Brighton and it just got gradually harder to keep friendships because people came and went (Brighton has a very transient population). People I'd meet at work and really like would then leave to go travelling, like everybody seemed to be moving to f\*king Australia, that kind of thing.

The past 3.5 years I lived in the North West, that was a massive own-goal because I should have known better, but I had a good friend there, then the friendship went sour and I found myself in a really, really closed and unfriendly part of the country. Made some friends at work but, again, the only person I really connected to moved to Australia (honestly it's a curse).

Most of my friends are scattered around the world and I've met them through a band I follow and other common interests. The few (can count on one hand) good friends I have over here again I either met through the above , and two are actually from my small home town in Italy.

TL;DR - it's very, very hard to make friends when you're over 30 I think. Don't get discouraged, try to look beyond the 'drinks after work' thing and when things reopen find something that really interests you - whether it's in Glasgow or London, it doesn't matter, there will be trains to go and meet up.

Stay strong!


Edit: fixed typo.