Rock climbing. Surfing. Volunteering. Anything, really, as long as it doesn't involve swiping right.

As one SF resident put it bluntly: "The dating pool has never been worse, so I'm focusing on collecting random hobbies and skills." Another local, fresh out of a long relationship, said she signed up for rock climbing at Mission Cliffs specifically so she wouldn't be "home spiraling."

Honest? Relatable? Absolutely. But there's also something genuinely encouraging happening here — and it's worth paying attention to.

San Francisco has spent years hemorrhaging residents, watching its social fabric thin out as remote work scattered people to Austin, Miami, and Boise. The city's young professional scene took a real hit. So when you see people actively choosing to invest in being here — learning to surf at Ocean Beach, joining climbing gyms in the Mission, seeking out volunteer opportunities — that's not just personal growth content for Instagram. That's community rebuilding from the ground up.

And here's the part that should make every bureaucrat and city planner take notice: none of this is happening because of a government program. Nobody applied for a grant. There's no $4 million "Community Engagement Initiative" with a deputy director and three consultants. People are just... doing things. Finding each other. Building social infrastructure the old-fashioned way — by showing up.

One Bay Area resident looking to learn surfing captured the spirit perfectly: "This is me trying!!"

The best part? These side quests cost a fraction of what the city spends trying to manufacture the same outcomes through committees and task forces. A climbing gym membership runs about $90 a month. A beginner surf lesson is maybe $100. Compare that to the millions San Francisco dumps into programs that produce glossy reports and little else.

So here's to the side questers. The city doesn't need another initiative. It needs more people who refuse to spiral — and choose to build something instead.