I moved near LA almost a year ago, and I thought it would be easier to meet people and get to know them, but so far it seems like I just sit at home working on my portfolio constantly, and never have anything social to do, other than occasional events, which don't ever lead to making friends with any of the people I meet there.
I put in all the effort that I know how to do, but it seems I just don't know how to make friends.
When I meet people at events, I get along with them well, they're glad to exchange social medias with me. I'll comment on their work and even DM people sometimes, but I always get the feeling they don't want to talk to me. It's not that I don't have anything to talk about. I think I have good conversations with these people at events about art and career stuff, but I can never seem to initiate those kinds of meetings on my own, or talk to people one on one.
Nobody reaches out to me to invite me anywhere, so I think I'll have to do that on my own. But while it's already scary to invite people to do things, I really have no idea what to invite them to do, and I'm looking for examples of good casual activities to invite people to do (for starters)
The only ideas I can think of are things that would fall under the "d a t e" category. For one, I'm already taken, and another, I'm worried people will get the wrong idea if I ask them to do something that seems like a d a t e (to me at least).
I'm also worried about getting a reputation for being a creep in the industry, because due to bad social skills over the years people always refer to me as weird or creepy in general, and I've seen people get cancelled for actually hitting on too many people at conventions or college, so I'd hate to get cancelled especially for something I'm not even doing. The ones that get to know me probably don't think that, but it's been a very long time since anyone has gotten to know me since I've moved here for a while already and haven't been able to find even casual friends.
Beyond initial hangouts, how do you regularly keep in touch with your fellow professional friends? I know rel@tionships are key to a career, and I don't just want to know people for my own career, I want to make real friends that I also consider good colleagues and collaborators in the future.
Please advice, especially if you've overcome this yourself. I've tried to learn how to do this on my own for many years, and it seems like I've never "gotten used to it" as people say you do. It seems like the potential rel@tionships and networks I have, just dissolve quickly