Joining a new friend group feels like walking into a movie halfway. Sit down anyway; you’ll catch up.

Arriving late into a group means missing the references, the history and the reason one particular word makes everybody laugh. That gap feels like proof you do not belong, when it is only proof you were not there in March. Groups absorb people constantly. The jokes get explained, and within a couple of months you are inside some of them.

Sit down and let yourself be slightly lost for a few weeks. Ask what the story behind the joke is instead of laughing along blankly. People enjoy explaining, and asking is how you get written into the next set.