Eligiu
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2017
- Messages
- 1,428
So I have Monday evenings off every fortnight (and both of these events start after I knock off my two hour shift so could feasibly still get to either every week) and I've been thinking of doing some kind of social activity to get more engaged in the community again and maybe make some new friends. Most of my friends from uni have graduated now, and they're starting jobs as lawyers so they really don't have much time to see me and I'm pretty full up with my schedule too with therapies and support workers and work. Like I do on average maybe 6-8 hours of various types of appointments per week, plus 25 hours of support workers on top of that and 10 hours per week of work.
But I think it's important for me to try and form connections with people who have the same interests as me. That makes it far easier for me to communicate with them at least in terms of my autism, when I know we have a shared mutual interest.
One of the options (which I have gone to before, just not regularly) is social badminton. I'm not very good at it compared with the rest of the people there but the exercise is good for me and I can pay to bring a support worker there to help me communicate because I go non verbal at this place due to not knowing anyone and getting overwhelmed. The downside is, I'm not particularly interested in badminton at all. It's just nearby, convenient, and cheap to take part in ($5). Another plus is I can leave whenever I get tired or get sick of being there.
The other option would be a Monday night Adventurers League Dungeons and Dragons group which ran from 6pm-10pm and which costs $2 to join. The plus side of this is that I'm very, very interested in DnD and love making my own characters and playing the games which they set up at the gaming store (I used to take a client to these events two years ago until he started going himself and I was already playing in two other DnD groups at the time so it was a bit much back then but I don't have a single DnD group at the moment which I miss) so I'll have a lot in common with the people I meet there and I'm much more likely to communicate with them willingly and happily over a special interest because I want to talk about it with whoever will listen. So I can see myself making friends there. The downside is I can't afford to bring a support worker to these sessions because they run too late and I also don't know if I even have a support worker who knows how to play DnD. But on the other hand this could be a good opportunity to try to do something without a support worker. The other downside is that I can't just leave when I want (unless I die in the game) so sometimes I might even be stuck there until 11pm which is incredibly late for me when I normally go to bed at 10. I wouldn't get into bed by 11:30-12.
Opinions?
But I think it's important for me to try and form connections with people who have the same interests as me. That makes it far easier for me to communicate with them at least in terms of my autism, when I know we have a shared mutual interest.
One of the options (which I have gone to before, just not regularly) is social badminton. I'm not very good at it compared with the rest of the people there but the exercise is good for me and I can pay to bring a support worker there to help me communicate because I go non verbal at this place due to not knowing anyone and getting overwhelmed. The downside is, I'm not particularly interested in badminton at all. It's just nearby, convenient, and cheap to take part in ($5). Another plus is I can leave whenever I get tired or get sick of being there.
The other option would be a Monday night Adventurers League Dungeons and Dragons group which ran from 6pm-10pm and which costs $2 to join. The plus side of this is that I'm very, very interested in DnD and love making my own characters and playing the games which they set up at the gaming store (I used to take a client to these events two years ago until he started going himself and I was already playing in two other DnD groups at the time so it was a bit much back then but I don't have a single DnD group at the moment which I miss) so I'll have a lot in common with the people I meet there and I'm much more likely to communicate with them willingly and happily over a special interest because I want to talk about it with whoever will listen. So I can see myself making friends there. The downside is I can't afford to bring a support worker to these sessions because they run too late and I also don't know if I even have a support worker who knows how to play DnD. But on the other hand this could be a good opportunity to try to do something without a support worker. The other downside is that I can't just leave when I want (unless I die in the game) so sometimes I might even be stuck there until 11pm which is incredibly late for me when I normally go to bed at 10. I wouldn't get into bed by 11:30-12.
Opinions?