Your article on loneliness and making friends as an adult struck a chord with me (I was getting lonely. Here’s what happened when I tried to make new friends in my 30s, 1 July). I mostly work from home, and last year I hit a point where I was increasingly feeling disconnected, isolated and a little lost. My weekends felt long and quiet, sometimes painfully so. I was struggling.
In September, I made the choice to start volunteering, thinking it might fill a bit of time. I signed up to Sense’s virtual buddying scheme, which pairs disabled people with volunteers for weekly catchups.
I was a little nervous to meet my buddy, but I can now say that they’re one of the most fabulous humans I know. Every Saturday evening, we meet on a video call for an hour. We play games, tell stories, create wild and wonderful things, dance and do 90s pop karaoke (badly, in my case). We laugh a lot. That single hour has become the highlight of my week. It’s a little pocket of joy and connection that brings colour to my routine.
I can’t recommend volunteering enough to anyone my age feeling lonely and looking to make new friends. Much more than just filling time on the weekend, my weekly calls have helped me reimagine what connection can look like and reminded me that small, consistent moments of joy add up and matter.
Paula McInally
Wolverhampton
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