You Don’t Have to Be Lonely…

No, this isn’t an advertisement for “Farmers Only . com”, but it does have to do with meeting people! So many times in this lifestyle I hear people say “Aren’t you lonely?” or “I couldn’t do it because I’d be lonely.” The short and the long of is that ANY lifestyle can be lonely. You are the deciding factor in that!

Some people live in the same neighborhood for 30 years and never get to know their neighbors. Others are head of the neighborhood association within 6 months after moving in. What’s the difference between these 2 groups of people. It’s their personalities, their priorities, and their willingness to put themselves out there.

As I told someone recently, those same two scenarios of people RV too. You meet all kinds of people in campgrounds. So how do we keep from becoming lonely?

By putting yourself out there

Sit outside. Build a fire. Be available for conversation. Speak to people. Putting yourself out there is one of the biggest things. If you are a hermit and always held up in your camper, your chances of meeting people are greatly decreased.

Join an organization

Fulltime Families has accomplished this for us. Between rallies, organized gatherings, location-specific speciality groups, and our Fulltime Families flag, the community is definitely out there and always seems to find us.

Thousand Trails is another organization that assist us in finding others to hang out with. Since most fulltime travelers utilize the Thousand Trails system, there are usually other fulltimers around and about when you arrive at a park.

Boondockers Welcome is a system where you boondock on other people’s property. I have heard that the host for Bookdockers Welcome are usually extremely friendly and sort of expect you to sit down and converse with them. They want to know your story, where you’ve been and where you’re heading.

For Us…

For us, Fulltime Families Facebook groups and rallies have made the biggest difference in our “community”. A paid subscription to the Fulltime Families grants you the opportunity to join the Members only Facebook group and the Fulltime Families rallies. As I have spoken many times here on the blog, rallies are essential for our family to meet friends. I have heard rallies described as speed dating. I get that analogy totally! It allows you to get to know a little about a lot of people. From there, you can make a decision to get to know the people, which you have a common interest with, more in-depth.

It is also our choice to arrive early for rallies and stay late. We left the day that our first rally ended. The rally Facebook page just kept going, and going, and going. It really got us thinking that next time, we needed to hang around a little longer. In Canada, we stayed for several extra days. That time was invaluable! We got to know the Anderson family more and a fabulous friendship was formed.

We also became much closer with several other families. When it came time to book Florida for this year, we opted to stay for the entire month. There were tons of post-rally opportunities to hang out with other families, from the field trip to the goat farm to lunches out to tons of fires with the Andersons. We were actually the third from the last family to leave.

My best advice to anyone who is concerned about friendships and socialization is to seek out opportunities to hang out with like-minded people and not to be afraid to put yourself out there.

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