So you weren't one of the kids in high school who was called to the house party where everyone was getting drunk and losing their virginity for the first time.

So you didn't get to go on Spring Breaks in both high school or college.

So you didn't get to enjoy all the debauchery that comes with Greek Life.

I could go on and on but that's in the past, now you're done with school and in the real world. You still feel that void over having "missed out" on something epic and now that adulthood is here, you feel that whatever you're getting will pale in comparison to the party that went on in college.

I would say that if you are 28 years old or younger, it is not too late for you to do something about it. After 28 it gets harder and after your early 30s (lets say 32 at the latest), it becomes more or less impossible to do this.

You feel the void because you are a misfit, likely lonely, which is also why you probably missed out.

You weren't "normal", had hobbies that others didn't really see as "cool", and weren't aware of the fact that status matters. When other kids were out being social, you were likely staying in playing videogames or studying for tough exams (admirable!). While other kids were talking about sports, entertainment, and fun things they did; you wanted to talk about Aristotle and the meaning of life. You're not feeling the void because you didn't drink enough or have enough sex, you're feeling it because you never found your tribe.

You took the advice of being "different" a bit too seriously and as a result, had a tough time fitting in which led to you being an outcast and lacking a social life. Eventually, being a misfit will catch up to you and lead to a lot of depression, loneliness, and before you know it; the window of opportunity to do something about it would have closed.

All of this more or less led to you being a social outcast, not belonging to large groups, and being lonely. If it doesn't bother you then you wouldn't be reading this thread but I am thinking it does bother you, so keep reading!

Here are the steps you can take to fix it:

1 - Move to a major city or at least a big city where a ton of college graduates move to and try to live in a "younger" area of that city.

Austin is a good city but there are lists of cities out there that a lot of people move to right after college. A lot of these post grads are still not completely over college and will spend a good 3 to 4 years after graduation hitting the bars and getting hammered. I have found that you will find people as old as 27 at college bars downing shots on a Friday night and getting blacked out drunk before they hit their 30s. You don't have to get wasted but realize that a lot of the people you want to be around (hot girls and Chads) do this every now and then.

One of my good friends lives in the East Village in NYC where there are tons of girls in their 20s and some apartments have a residential feel to them. My friend spend 3 years of his life where he would work hard during the weekdays but spend the weekends partying, getting laid, going to social events with some of his boys and some hot girls, and really getting it all out of his system. My friend went to an engineering school where the girls were not that hot and classes were overwhelmingly male.

2 - You're going to have to get on social media, especially in this day and age.

Especially if you want to keep an eye on what events are going on in the area. Want to know the one thing almost all higher status younger people have in common? Good social media accounts with lots of friends and followers. Hot girls and Chads have lots of friends and followers. Social media has become a measuring stick in this day and age of drawing the line between who is cool and who is not. Is it fake and full of narcissists? Absolutely but it is just how the game is these days. I am going to write a post on this in the future but it has been my experience that people who are not on social media tend to be seen as lower status than those who are. People without a lot of friends and followers are seen as lower status than those who don't.

We're at a time in society where your status is more or less determined by how many friends you have and how much likes your pics get on social media. I know a lot of you on here will consider it fake and trying too hard but that is just how it is these days. I will do a detailed post on this at some time in the future but for younger guys, social media is more or less the the way to show your status to others your age.

3 - Find out what the objectively higher status people of your age range (the 20s) are doing and do it.

Look at the average person after college: they work their 40 to 50 hr workweek, go home, binge on netflix, eat junk food, go to sleep, and spend their weekends just binging on Netflix and doing chores. The same person will complain about how it is "so tough to make friends" after college. I would say that the same person just sat in their dorm room all day in college and likely didn't get involved much in high school either. See what a lot of these low value people have in common at all phases in life? They don't bother to get involved and aren't proactive about social life, even in school the social life didn't just come to you in most cases.

A common trend you will find among a lot of high SMV (or higher value) people at all phases of life is that they get involved. In high school they were taking part in sports and other activities and in college they were getting involved in Greek Life or other big organizations. See a trend here? High SMV people were generally very involved in the community and doing activities that forced them to be social and interact with high volumes of other people.

Obviously you don't get involved in card game groups or gamer groups, that's nerdy. What you do instead is go for activities such as being involved in intramural sports, maybe an improv group, something to do with music (obviously not orchestra or classical music but something more "trendy") and just get creative with it in general. The issue is that what high SMV people are doing will vary based on where you are in the country, down south they tend to go to youth church groups while outside of the south it isn't really the case. Find an activity or two that has a tendency to draw a lot of the outgoing and socially well connected people and go to that activity.

4 - From there, the opportunities keep coming up. Once you have friends, it is easier to make more friends.

You meet a guy or girl from your intramural club, you two become somewhat close acquaintances, they call you to go to a social event with them where they know people, you become acquaintances with some of those people, then some of them start calling you to their events or wanting to hang out, from there you meet more people, and then it keeps going until you are meeting more and more people. Be sure to add them as followers on your Instagram page because lots of Instagram followers in this day and age means higher status for a guy, it's shallow and vain but that is just how it is.

A lot of the "friends" you meet are going to be short-term friends or people just looking to raise their social status by having you around. Many times you are going to run into people that talk to you at that event and then pretend like they don't know you, it's just how it is. You will meet a lot of fake friends at first who are nothing more than a follower on your social media page, don't take it personally. Stay strong and stick with it, initially it will seem tough.

5 - Through much trial and error, you will start to have a loose social circle.

Most people are not going to want to do anything social with you after an activity or no matter how many times they see you. Eventually though, after months of sticking with it, you are going to slowly find your crowd. You could be a part of a club team and most guys on it rather not do anything with you after the games are over but some will be open to being your friend. Look out for the social guy who is calling team mates to go to an event with him, be a yes man and tag along. Start doing this with almost all of your activities on the weekends, looking out for the social people who are in the same situation as you.

Do this for a few months and you will start to have social opportunities popping up, again, it will take time so be patient. In the first couple of months, people are awkward and just trying to get settled. After a while, you will notice that opportunities start to pop up and you find others in the activity who are actually there to make friends and others who are just there to do the activity and be done with it. From here, you will slowly develop a social circle that within a year or so will end up solidifying.

6 - Now the fun begins, enjoy it while it lasts!

Now you have your tribe and group of friends to go out with, spend time with, and enjoy some amazing experiences with. Go out with a date and your group of friends to a nightclub, get hammered, go back home, and have a hell of a story to tell the next day (you don't do this every week, just every now and then!). Go to a concert with your friends and have some amazing experiences to share that way. Enjoy the experiences that come when you get the chance to because at some point when the 30s come, the window of opportunity will close.

You won't even think about what you missed out on.

Whatever the hell you missed out in college, high school, or whatever; you won't think about it. I mean sure, it might come up every now and then (still does for me at times) but it will be fairly minor compared to how bad it used to be. Your weekends and maybe even some of your weekdays will be full of social interactions with fun people you are close to. You will slowly feel like a part of a large group, fit in, have fun experiences, and get a handle on something that has been bothering you.

Is it going to be a big time investment? Yes but I do think most guys working the typical 40-50 hr workweek can pull it off, completely different story if you're working investment banking hours.