I am a 48 year old mother of a 10 year old amazing boy. His father and I are divorced but I feel blessed we have a very healthy co-parenting relationship, always putting our son first. We even sometimes celebrate the holidays together!

I have a successful career in Biotech and appreciate what I do as I have many opportunities to learn and grow. But I work remotely from home and it gets lonely. Some friends have moved out of state and others are just too busy with the usual things in life to get together.

Nature and being outside, yoga, eating healthy, reading (I'm in a book club) . I love walking outside through different neighborhoods and appreciating the styles of homes/landscapes especially now that everything is in full bloom! I love trying different ethnic restaurants from Thai, Ethiopian, Vietnamese, etc.

I miss having friends to connect with. I would love to connect with others who live in the Menlo Park/Redwood City/Palo Alto/San Mateo area.

Prior to age 6 children are truly unable to understand the world from another person's point of view. A preschooler can be emotionally sympathetic but he cannot really stand in another's shoes. The ability to do this will not be fully present until around age 16.

I’m almost halfway through my 30s, child free so far, and recently recognizing the need to build, foster, provide, and maintain a support network outside of blood relatives.

My life is starting to smooth out now, after a lifetime of bumps and potholes. Lost both of my parents in the last 5 years - it has profoundly impacted my life, both the weight of the loss, and the weightlessness of the newfound freedom from toxic negativity.

My dogs, and my partner. Taking a deep breath, coming back to the present moment with various grounding exercises. If time permits, taking 5-15 minutes to journal, starting with 1, 3, or 5 things I'm grateful for right now.

Nurturing my relationships, keeping my loved ones close, establishing professional stability to alleviate my anxiety about the future, learning about personal finances.

Learning to cook different things, practicing mindfulness and gratitude, doing balance exercises and paying attention to my body and what it needs

Just moved to the city late last year! Trying to figure out what exactly I want to do with life and figuring out who I am/growing comfortable with myself. Trying to keep my enthusiastic and positive energy steady with all interactions I have with others. I just want to make genuine connections and learn from others. Self discovery and growth is at a high for me now!

Life is okay. I have a good job and a decent support system but something feels missing, and I'm not entirely sure what it is. I've been learning a lot about my past and how it affected me while actively trying to practice positive changes.

Going out on walks/drives/being in nature. Eating good food!! Any kind interaction with a stranger. Those little memorable exchanges make a huge difference. Also dogs and cats haha.

Just being more comfortable being vulnerable! It's something I've always struggled with in the past and i feel like I closed off parts of myself that I actually like. I want to grow out of my shell again and I think just having meaningful conversations with others and allowing myself to meet new people/try new things would help!

I heard that if you see a banana slug for the first time that you're supposed to kiss it (Santa Cruz local tradition haha).

I'm a female immigrant who moved to the Bay Area in 2015. I'm currently well established in my career but since I moved here I've struggled with making new friends. I'm currently working on myself and trying to improve my social skills.

My daily life routine revolves around working, going to the gym, taking painting classes, and taking care of my cats and plants. Whenever possible, I like to do outdoor stuff like camping and hiking.

Going to the gym and keeping in contact with nature (hiking, camping, offroading)

Strengthening my current friendships and improving my social life. After a bad breakup, I woke up to the fact that I was neglecting my friends, who are not that many since I didn't grow up in the US.

This Reddit post, which brought me here: https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/1alecrf/talking_to_strangers_for_12_months_connecting/ OP's story is very similar to my story and I'm feeling very inspired by their post.

I'm someone in my early 40s, currently dating. The hardest part is 1) making new connections (I'm a transplant) and 2) maintaining the ones I have because most of my friends are busy with their spouses and kids. Recently one of my best friends had shoulder surgery and is currently housebound for the next 6 weeks and I'm secretly thrilled! I call her at anytime without worrying that I'm interfering with her life and she likes it when I call because she's super bored haha.

It's a lot better ever since I switched jobs and aren't pulling 14-hour days. I got really burned out at one point. So I'm learning to take breaks and not make my whole life about work (even though I enjoy my career!). Tomorrow I'm doing a movie night with coworkers and in a couple of weeks I'm visiting Japan for the first time. It feels weirdly scary to take PTO but I'm telling myself it's OK. I think being the daughter of refugees has made me think that life is just about work and survival but I'm sure my parents would want me to be happy too.

Getting lost in a good book

Wellness. Got a personal trainer! I'm getting my azz kicked! :D

Okay so I used to think sports were really boring. Guys going back and forth across the field? Racecars going around and around in circles? I have never been so happy to be so wrong. One of my exes taught me about American football and WOW it is endlessly interesting. There are so many cool scenarios that can happen right down to the last 2 seconds. And then there's Formula 1 -- so many interesting situations there too! The choice of tire compound the weather conditions the tracks themselves it's all so so interesting and so great.

I'm at my quarter-life-, what-do-i-want-for-a-midlife crisis stage. I'm in my mid-twenties, moved to San Francisco a little bit more than a year ago (have loved every minute of it). I'm also early in my career doing something I am passionate about but work, for me, has been a way to do the things that make me earn life experiences; I predominantly get this by doing a lot of things outdoors so I am very active but I also love to consume art as well be that through reading, watching, or listening.

Peaceful, content, and exciting. It surprises me daily that my life is this way because there was a point 2-3 years ago where I wouldn't have imagined life would ever be good to me. I'm extremely grateful for where I am today. I have a couple close friends with whom I do a lot of activities but I mostly do things by myself (I enjoy them very much) — things like picking a neighborhood and zigzagging through it to explore. I haven't made many new friends since moving to the city because I just end up doing things by myself but I want to break that and try to go out of my comfort zone, hoping this happens through AroundTheCorner because meeting new people, and making new friendships is a life experience I struggle to earn.

3 o'clock tea time. It is a sacred time, a non-negotiable that I look forward to daily. Making tea, while singing along to my tea time playlist with the sun shining through my windows and the breeze playing with my curtains is a sight I will never get tired of. Along with this, I also have reading time, gaming time, and exploration time. Each meaningful and special to me its own way.

Not losing the wonder with which I saw the world as a kid. Do you remember how the grass, wind, sun, clouds and everything else, small and big, (even the gray of the walls) awed you as a kid? I think we get caught up in life and stop appreciating all that after a point. I live slow, to relearn the wonder and curiosity I inadvertently put aside. I love to travel (currently planning my first solo trip to Costa Rica!), taking photos, and looking with awe at everything this fabulous pale blue dot has to offer.

A travelogue called "Cyclettes". It's about all the cycles the author has owned and the impact each one of them had on them. My cycle, and cycling in general, is something I hold dear because it was how I was first able to express my freedom. I always heard "freedom", and "free" as a kid but never really expressed it or experienced it's meaning until I started cycling. This travelogue/memoir caught my eye immediately because I could relate to it in a lot of ways.

Early 30s, married, good career in medicine, steadily advancing forward on a pretty traditional life path. Now attempting to navigate work life balance so that life feels a little less grind and a little more fulfilling.

Comfortable; I recently move back to the bay (grew up here) and have been reconnecting with old friends and family. Home life is great, and my swap to less work days has me engaging with more hobbies on my spare time that I've wanted to pursue all my life.

Family, my dog, my work (oddly enough), and my many hobbies

Getting fit and staying that way: I just signed up to do part time with the USAF and need to make sure I don't fail the physicals.

Expanding my social circle: looking for folks lively enough to enjoy some nightlife with, but also still need to get home at a responsible hour because we got crap to do in the morning.

Started flight lessons at the beginning of the year and started learning a ton about private and commercial aviation.