sometimes it's harder...

[Stinkweed]

Hi everyone and happy new year. Well, I need some advice... Well, you see, at the beginning of the year, I was having some personal issues for some reason... I wasn't feeling very sociable, and I kept feeling pretty down, and well, I guess I wasn't in a very sociable mood/attitude. Well, this has changed a bit... I mean, I feel a lot happier, and everything, which brings me to my question: I feel I've missed out on tons of opportunities. I mean, I have "recently" posted already about this girl I believe was interested in me... I mean, I don't like to make assumptions like this, but oh well, you know what I mean... And well, there's been lots of people I could have probably befriended, etc. That's the thing that bugs me... I don't know what to do now that we're well into the middle of the year... Is it too late to start? Because I have wanted to start... I smile at people, etc, but I guess it's hard for me to start a conversation... I mean, what if there's a girl I'm not interested in pursuing a relationship with, and I wanna start a friendship? I mean, I wouldn't know what to talk about. I just wanna know more people and what they're about, and see which could be friends and which couldn't... Heck I know pretty much nothing when it comes to meeting girls too... So, I guess I need help with pretty much starting a conversation in general. I don't really know what to do, and it only makes me even more tense... It's not always the same... Sometimes I know what to talk about with some people (namely, with the few friends I've made since last year), and now I think I understand another reason why it was easy with them: They're pretty sociable, so I didn't have such a hard time. But when it is me the one who has to take the initiative, I get nervous... Any tips?

[DiscipleOfChange]

The biggest tip is to not think about it and throw yourself in. Are you in college yet? If you are, then there are a number of things you can do. Introducing yourself to people on your floor and in your dorm is a nice and easy way of approaching new people beause at the start of a new semester, there are always new people on campus.

An important thing to keep inmind is you can't second guess yourself. Confidence is a good thing and you need to feel strong enough to approach someone and introduce yourself. If they think you're weird for doing so, you don't want anything to do with them anyway. That being said, there is skill involved i approaching someone. Start with mutually amicale openers like : Boy, that was a boring/exciting class hunh?" or "It looks like this is going to be an exciting semester, prof so and so seems amazing!." After that, introduce yourself nad see how things go from there

[Stinkweed]

I'm actually in high school... Senior year. And well, all you said sounds good so far, except that saying something like "boy, that was boring" part, which is especifically the part I'm having the most trouble with. I don't know what to say, especially since it's the middle of the year and 2 of my 4 classes are year-long, so if I wanna become more involved with my classmates, I'm afraid it might be too late. So, I dunno what to do... And if the person isn't in any of my classes? I'm clueless.

[Stinkweed]

More suggestions, plz?

[atraceofblood]

what about asking the girls about homework assignments? Or if a girl says something that interests you, maybe you ask about what she said.

 

In class you could just start with "hi, *name*, how are you doing?" then talk about what she did for winter break, or talk about something about school, class, etc.