So my friend is pledging a frat, and as a pledge he had to clean/provide beer/etc for a party. Since I'm his best friend, he invited me along to the party. While we both go to the same school, I don't know many people, so the party was basically me being completely surrounded by guys and girls I've never met.

A little bit of background: The day before the party was kind of shitty. I had to kill 7 hours on campus with no one to hangout with so I was going to study, and then 20 minutes into studying my laptop charger breaks and my laptop dies. So, since my plan for the next 7 hours to just kick back at the library just kind of fell apart, so I texted my ex who lives close to campus and ask if she's free, and so I end up spending the afternoon with her. It was basically the epitome of AFC status, her telling me about the guy she's dating, the other guy she's blowing off, and the other guy she's going out with tonight. So, as you can guess, I wasn't really in state leading up to the party, but I still set out to make the best of it.

So, fast forward to the party. I already had a couple shots before we arrived, and then split half a blunt with my friend. Since we got there right as the party was starting there weren't many non-bros there, so a few of us just played King's cup. One thing I said to myself as I was leaving the car was "don't be your typical antisocial, sit on the couch bored all night self, and go talk to people", and that's exactly what I did for the night. Talked. To. Everyone.

Since I didn't know anyone there other than 2 people, I figured I might as well not rely on my friends as a social crutch and just branch out to whoever I saw. I talked to a few of the brothers, a few of the pledges, a few random guys, some frat girlfriends, random mixed groups, set of girls, etc. If you knew me in person, you'd know how HUGELY out of character this is for me, and I loved every bit of it. One of the few times in my life I can say I met so many people so close together that I forgot a lot of people's names. I feel like I talked to at least half of the people who showed up that night.

After another blunt, several random interactions, and a few beers, I run into a group of three girls sitting on the patio, and I just extend my arm out to the nearest one for a handshake and said, "hey, how's it going?" or "hey, I'm Anonymack". Then I'm kind of talking to the girls, not really focused on any one in particular, but then I start talking to the Vietnamese HB7 in the group, and me and her kind of just focused in on each other and ignored the other side conversations. I remembered one of the advice I got from seddit of an IOI is re-initiating convo after it goes dead. Once she did this, I figured it was safe to say talking to her wouldn't hurt. Found out she's a senior (I'm a sophomore) and a ______ major (I totally forgot, thank you marijuana), I told her I was a CS major and she replied "oh, you're a nerd like me!" Which I totally loved. After a minute or so of going on randomly, I exchanged numbers with her. Shortly after that in the shuffle I lost her in the crowd, but I texted her today (don't wait 3 or whatever days and lose attraction momentum) and she responded so I now I have someone new in my life I can talk to/ go out with for the moment.

This was my first #-close that I've ever gotten at a party, so I was definitely jazzed up about it.

In hindsight, I noticed I completely forgot to kino about 80% of the time, only kinoing when it popped into my head. I also need to work on escalating and building attraction moreso than just random conversation. While I enjoyed the dozens of conversations I had last night, it'd be great to have had more success with the ladies. I remembered to keep good posture, keep my hands out of my pockets, and hold eye contact. I also remembered to smile a lot, which I usually forget to do despite having a great smile.

Any tips for next time? I'm definitely trying to repeat/surpass last night as soon as possible.

edit: Also noteworthy: This was the first time I've ever been to a party/club/etc with my friend and had more fun than he did, and he actually wanted to leave before I did, which has never happened ever.