Global Correspondent #1: How I Made Friends All Over The World

Did you know, whenever I travel, I've never had to stay in hotels in all the places I went?

The reason for this is because I made good friends with people all over the world! It was something I never expected to happen, but it was almost by sheer luck and me making the most of who I knew and what I could do for them. Specifically, I made most of these friends via a shared hobby or interest.

That hobby I refer to is dance games.

I won't go into the specifics of what In The Groove (ITG) is, but it's enabled me to reach out to people in other countries and connect with them, and give me a window into what living in their small corners of the world is like. Not as a tourist, but as a local. I mentioned in my introduction post that I have always enjoyed experiencing other societies as someone who seemed to live there and not as a visitor. I feel that it provides me with a greater immersive experience and I truly feel like one of them; living with them and helping them out with their daily lives, whilst at the same time enjoying new cultures and new places to look at and visit.

It was all because of a video game that I was able to make friends in places like the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Peru, Canada, Japan and various other places, and connect with their lives and share information and ideas. The conversations I had with these new friends always started out as game-related, but over time we would always find common areas of interest in other aspects of life and before I knew it, we had become real friends. From there I would meet their friends groups and slowly my network of people would grow.

If you have a hobby or something you enjoy doing on a regular basis, take advantage of that knowledge and skillset you have and see if there's a wider community beyond your local city or country. People are always going to want to know about you and learn about you, because you are interesting and you will always have something fun and exciting to talk about to them, even if you don't think so.

It may lead to new opportunities you never thought could happen to you!

Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave a comment if you have something you'd like to say! What are your interests that you feel could connect you with other people around the world?