After moving to Alabama for my husband's job, I was lonely. The key to making friends was being the one to make plans.

• A few years after moving to Alabama for my husband's job, I still felt lonely. • To build the friendships I wanted, I started taking classes, going to networking events, and more. • When I met people I liked, I made plans, and realized it was the key to making friends.

In 2023, a few years after moving to Alabama for my husband's dream job at NASA, I found myself desperately lonely and facing the prospect of an adulthood over 400 miles from our hometown with a nonexistent social safety net. I felt like we were in a race against time: how quickly could we build the kind of community we would need as we began to build a family?

I committed to spending the entire year pursuing any opportunity that might lead to a connection with others. I took pottery classes and set up coffee dates.