A further update: Your volunteer work needs to be long term. No one is going to pay attention to you much if you only work a few weeks. It takes months before you usually start to get noticed and move up in charitable organizations (unless you come in at the upper levels).
I volunteer judged kayak races for 29 out of 30 years (I had a health issue one year, but at least showed up and watched my local race and stayed in touch).
My more recent volunteer activity - mentoring people in my area (we meet in person) - is now ongoing 7 years (and I've helped about 30 significantly improve their income, 3 start successful businesses) and numerous others to a lessor extent.
So stick with it - people will notice (and you will make friends).
On another issue: You need to learn about personality types. Many books out there. I own and read three different ones: My current favorite is "Positive Personality Profiles" by Robert A Rohm. He worked in the ministry long before he decided to pursue a Ph.D in Communications and the book is written with a number of Judo/Christian biblical references (I personally believe that the book stands on its own without them - but people of those faiths tend to find the references reassuring).
Understanding personalities is part of people skills.
Note that there is a recent book out that shows that your personality is not necessarily fixed or permanent. The best base characteristics are retained and growing people improve on other characteristics and noticably change their personality profile scores over the decades. That book is "Personality Isn't Permanent" by Benjamin Hardy. It was just published in June 2020 - and I had it on advanced order so I got one of the 1st copies. Great book (but it helps a lot to understand the base personality concepts 1st).
I wish you well with this... I believe that you can develop meaningful friendships and find someone who is right for you. But, it often takes time to do that. Patience and effort pays off...
Why doesn't anyone make me a priority?
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A further update: Your volunteer work needs to be long term. No one is going to pay attention to you much if you only work a few weeks. It takes months before you usually start to get noticed and move up in charitable organizations (unless you come in at the upper levels).
I volunteer judged kayak races for 29 out of 30 years (I had a health issue one year, but at least showed up and watched my local race and stayed in touch).
My more recent volunteer activity - mentoring people in my area (we meet in person) - is now ongoing 7 years (and I've helped about 30 significantly improve their income, 3 start successful businesses) and numerous others to a lessor extent.
So stick with it - people will notice (and you will make friends).
On another issue: You need to learn about personality types. Many books out there. I own and read three different ones: My current favorite is "Positive Personality Profiles" by Robert A Rohm. He worked in the ministry long before he decided to pursue a Ph.D in Communications and the book is written with a number of Judo/Christian biblical references (I personally believe that the book stands on its own without them - but people of those faiths tend to find the references reassuring).
Understanding personalities is part of people skills.
Note that there is a recent book out that shows that your personality is not necessarily fixed or permanent. The best base characteristics are retained and growing people improve on other characteristics and noticably change their personality profile scores over the decades. That book is "Personality Isn't Permanent" by Benjamin Hardy. It was just published in June 2020 - and I had it on advanced order so I got one of the 1st copies. Great book (but it helps a lot to understand the base personality concepts 1st).
I wish you well with this... I believe that you can develop meaningful friendships and find someone who is right for you. But, it often takes time to do that. Patience and effort pays off...