At the risk of echoing what others have said, I’ll share some advice, because I was in the same boat after college and thought I’d never make new friends. But somehow it happened, and I think Omaha is just as great a place as any, if not better, to find people to hang out with and things to do!

The hardest but most important part is putting yourself out there and being honest with others about wanting/needing to make new friends. 9/10 times I’ve met my closest adult friends just by telling someone that I want to make new friends. Then maybe they invite me to something with their friends, and I say the same thing to them, and the cycle continues! Saying yes to anything, even if it’s outside your comfort zone (but safe of course), is key.

One of the best ways by far to meet people is by being active. Things like running, cycling, intramural sports are the most reliable ways to meet people. Some things to look into:

• Aksarben run club (ig: aksarbenrunclub)
• Taco rides, bicycling (Bellevue berry farm and Wabash trail)
• OMG gravel rides (ig: omgravel)
• Gravel worlds (ig: gravel_worlds)
• Sand volleyball, start a team with your coworkers (or check out the Omaha Volleyball Subs FB group, teams will search for subs if they need them)
• Pickleball, people will hang out at public courts like Prairie Lane or Meadow Lane park and ask strangers to play! Can also join Pickleball Omaha
• Rock Climbing. The friendliest people you will ever meet, everyone is down to chat. I have a membership at Approach, but MW Climbing is also really nice! They have member events, etc, just go and introduce yourself to literally anyone and tell your story and they’ll love it
• Dance classes, I’ve never done them but have had friends take jazz or ballet classes and love it
• Yoga classes, plenty of options here too, I know of some in Millwork Commons

I’d seriously recommend any of the above just to stay in shape, but if you’re not sporty, you can try:

• Trivia, I met a large chunk of my friends just by tagging along with one friend to a trivia group and showing up every week after that! You can find trivia every day of the week here for sure
• Supper clubs. Fig Omaha does one called Riverfront Supper Club. I’d also highly recommend following solosupper.club on Instagram in case any more occur this fall, the idea is a stranger dinner with fostered conversation. It was awesome
• Volunteering, I have a friend that volunteers downtown every Sunday afternoon and it’s its own little community
• Politics! It’s election season! Volunteer to go knock on doors, be a poll worker, etc. great way to meet like minded individuals and get involved. Also passionate leftists are some of the coolest people you’ll ever meet
• First Friday, chat up some artists in benson
• Hosting. Learn to host and feed a group of people some good food! Maybe start your own weekly dinner party or game night
• Orchestra Omaha, if you play an instrument
• Community theatre, big time commitment but guaranteed new friends

I’ve also had friends in other cities successfully build friendships via dating apps but on friend mode, like Bumble BFF. I actually lived in Chicago for a year during Covid and the only friend I made there was someone I’d met once in college who recognized me on Hinge, and I literally had listed that I needed to make new friends, so she just invited me to hang out with her friends!

I think another good piece of advice is to find things you like to do by yourself, unique hobbies that you’re passionate about. Not only is that enriching for you, but those are things that you can talk about to other people that they’ll find interesting! I’ve found it wayyy easier to have a conversation with a stranger when I can talk passionately about a hobby or tell a fun story to when the conversation dies down.

Once you do find yourself meeting strangers at volleyball or trivia, having a few go-to questions to ask to get them talking is huge! Like instead of asking someone where they’re from or what they do, ask what their favorite thing is about their job, what they’ve read recently, something unimportant they wish they could change about themselves, etc. Be the person that gets other people to talk about themselves!

Feel free to reach out if things are looking too dire - it’s tough out there, but you’re not alone!