What do you do to be involved in the community?
One barrier that many people find to making friends is that they don’t prioritize doing things they enjoy. Typically, friendship revolving around a shared interest, especially for a man, is easier to bond over.
Men, in general, are more likely to bond working on a project together or a sports team, rather than interacting for interaction’s sake. So, finding things you like doing is an important step on the formula to making friends.
I think my interests dovetail nicely with advocacy and producing content to help people better their own lives. I spent the greater part of middle school, all of high school, and some of college involved in competitive debate of some sort. I was also involved in knocking on doors for local politics, running a political analysis club, and cold-calling people to mobilize voting.
In college, I became a much more persuasive writer and began to column for my college’s newspaper. I also picked up a radio show, and worked for the station, training others how to communicate effectively. I also founded and led an organization, Huskies for Free Speech, where I got friends to advocate for a movement I found important.
Post-college, I’ve been involved in standup and improv comedy. I want to eventually get back into doing more radio, and I think producing a podcast, a blog, and course curriculum is my next step to glory.
For me, a lot of the activities I’ve done are purposeful because I think being able to communicate clearly is half the battle towards seeing the change you want in the world. So, my mission is often a function of best serving the communities I’m a part of.
I also love building and being parts of community. I volunteer for my local library, often join rec league sports, belong to a climbing gym, run 5ks, lift heavy weights, involve myself in a table tennis club, a trivia team, and I’m helping others with building a startup incubator in lower Fairfield county.
Isadore Johnson's Website 