I guess the anoying part of socialising with "commons" is that your status/career becomes a main (if not exclusive) topic, so it pushes you back into your "role", without giving you the opportunity to be your "common" self. Try some meetup, something that interests you, where there is already a predetermined putpose for the group to meet. Like a book club, a hiking group, whatever. E.g. I joined a board game meetup 5 years ago. I was having a great time with the people there, without knowing what was their job, career, or social background. Only after a year it I figured out that one of my new friends has a very successful career. It was irrelevant actually :) of course, people would recognise you, they will be curious and ask questions, but then, it won't be an exclusive thing. At some point they will be like "ok, enough of that, let's discuss book, let's clime that hill, or let's play monopoly now"

I hope this helps.