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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  1287 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: September 16, 2020

Congrats on graduating and landing a full-time salaried job.

You are re-locating to a major city within Florida. As with all places, big or small, you will have to gently remind yourself where your own interests lie and set your course to seeking them out in your new location during your free time. My first real out-of-school job (I only have a year or two on you) was on the Space Coast. There was not much on that side of Space Coast. But, my favorite thing about that gig was the flexible work hours. I got up a little bit earlier so I could leave work earlier and go read on the beach. 'Adulting' means carving out time for you. Tampa is a big city - with COVID, it will be generally rougher to 'get out there' making more friends, but that's where getting friendly with those you will interact with daily anyways comes into play. Even if it's just starting out with greetings and small talk.

Making friends can look like getting more acquainted with neighbors, making an effort with chatting up co-workers and striking up conversations at the nearby comic shops (my ploy). Two of those settings are places that you will spend most of your day at. Maybe you don't click with some of them, and that's ok. The comic shop is where I knew I would find nerds of some capacity in a small town to jive with. Now, Tampa is not a small town (it has a few colleges pulling students to that area) and has gorgeous scenery. Personally, I would make weekend trips to the Preserves and State Parks nearby if that's were I was located! An easy way to find out what isn't boring is asking your neighbors and/or co-workers what to do around the area. Maybe lurk the USF/NCF/Eckerd/etc subreddit/forums for what your peers do.