I've always thought that the older we get the more "refined" our tastes get. We learn what foods we like, what kinds of of entertainment we enjoy, and to a certain extent what kind of personalities we want to be around and which we don't. But that last bit also seems to become more difficult as well. Making friends in school is easy, you tend to learn about a person as you're encouraged to be around them for a few hours a week or more. You find people with similar interests, you start a conversation. The best results you find yourself wanting to know more or ask their opinion of things and eventually your life just seems better when you get to spend time with the person. To a certain extent this extends past school into your career or work life if you happen to have a job that has a regular staff. Time sometimes becomes something you have less of for whatever reason, so you start having to make time for these people. Stress can be a factor as well, as you may find yourself just wanting to spend some time alone or with your life partner to quell the things burdening your mind. But I've found most people eventually come to a point where making new friends requires quite a bit of effort.
I'm in the UK again. For the amount of times I've been here lately I really should be trying to make some friends around town. Especially since I'm the type of person that needs a bit of human interaction or I truly begin to lose my mind a bit. But it's difficult to know where to start sometimes, and the worries begin to roll in. What if I meet someone and we don't click, or I don't think we click but they do and then I feel like I have to come up with excuses as to why I "can't" come hang out. What are good conversations topics? Will they think it's weird that I'm obsessed with 80's and 90's pop culture references but couldn't quote a modern era song if my life depended on it? These are all silly questions, I realize, and you'll never know unless you try, right?