Y it's so nice to meet you!

In my day-to-day life, I run in a few different circles.  For the case of this post, let’s say that my networks are:

1) Young Professionals
2) Jews
3) Suburbanites

Being fairly new to Atlanta (less than 3 years), fairly new to my job (6 months), and a newlywed (1 month), I’m oftentimes in situations where I’m meeting new people.  I go to networking events, attend parties, go out with large groups of friends, meet people at the kids’ schools and activities, etc.

When you first meet someone there are a few ice-breaker questions that you tend to ask, right?  These questions allow you to learn about the person and also serve to help discover some commonalities that you may have, which will lead to a connection, camaraderie, or even friendship. Yay! New friends!!!  Who doesn’t want new friends, right? Right???

So…I’ve noticed that these questions change based on demographic.

Young Professionals ask:

• What do you do?  (meaning occupation/career)
• Where do you live?  OR What part of town are you in?
• Where’d you go to school? 
• Where are you originally from?
• How do you know ____________? (insert name of person who introduced you or person who is hosting the event or party that you are attending)

Jews ask:

• Where did you grow up?
• How old are you?
• Where do you go to synagogue?
• Where’d you go to college?
• Where do your parents live?
• How long have you been married?
• Are you having more kids?
• Do you know my cousin ______? OR Are you related to _______? (insert name of person who is around your age, went to your college, lives in the town you grew up in, or has the same or a similar last name as you)
• …and a million other prying questions.

Suburban stay-at-home moms ask:

• How old are your kids?
• What does your husband do?
• How did you meet your husband?
• Do you play tennis? 
• What do you do for birth control?
  I’m kidding.  No one asks this right away.  They wait until everyone’s a little buzzed and has purple wine-stained teeth before bringing up this subject!

Suburban men/fathers ask:

• What do you want to drink?
  Please see above reference to wine.

Disclaimer: The above post is intended to be humorous and is only about 90% fact-based…maybe 85% at most.