Blog #7 Would you go to dinner with 6 strangers?…Because I did

Moving to Perth and living independently has been the best decision I have ever made, I have grown, learned, and changed so much. It really has changed my trajectory in life and who I am as a person. One of the things I have learned is that making new friends in a new city in your 20s is really daunting. I’ve met so many incredible people up here. however, most of these friendships are tied to either work or university. So, where else do you make new friends? I was not so sure until recently.

Wednesday last week I’m sat on the toilet at work, scrolling through Instagram. Then I see an ad in between stories. It’s a photo of a bunch of smiling people around a table and the words “New to Perth?”. It piqued my curiosity so I swiped up to find out more. Turns out it was advertising this app called Time Left. The whole purpose of this app is to match up 7 random strangers and have them meet at a random restaurant. Every Wednesday, this happens all over the world.

I was very interested but also had my reservations. Is this app legit? Will anyone else be using it in Perth? What if I get stuck with a bunch of middle-aged birdwatchers and stamp collectors???

I was really torn but overall my desire to meet new people, do new things and get out of my comfort zone won out. I signed up for one month and put my name down for a dinner on the 17th.

I went on with my week and told a few friends on what I planned on doing but mostly didn’t think about it too much. By this Tuesday though the nerves and the anticipation had begun to rise. The app revealed to me the location of the dinner, a restaurant called No Mafia in Northbridge and some basic info on my dinner guests such as their nationalities and professions. Aside from that I was completely in the dark.

Wednesday evening arrived, I got ready, made myself a cocktail at home to help me feel more social, and I called an Uber. I arrived to see four people already there and the other two arrived not too long after.

To my surprise, I was sat at a table full of interesting people in their 20s who were all keen to get to know each other. The app provided us with some interesting topics to discuss and we all managed to learn about each other which was great. After our dinner which was amazing by the way, we continued to hang out until past 11.

It felt almost strange how well it went, like I didn’t want to give the app and its “algorithm” props but it did a great job. We all exchanged Instagram’ and are planning on hanging out again. It’s crazy how one experience can completely shift your feelings towards something. I’ve gone from interested but unsure to grateful and excited.

I’ll be going on more of these, I get three more with the app and have already booked into next Wednesday. I’m so excited for my next dinners, I had a great time and I’m so glad I took the risk, even if each dinner after this one is an absolute failure I’ll still be glad I took the risk.

I’ll keep you lot updated with how the rest of these go, maybe not another full post but we’ll see.

Have a great day !!!