I’m (19F) naturally more introverted. When I talk or text, sometimes things don’t naturally come out the way I want them to. I can come off as either too awkward, too cold/hostile, or too engaged, and a recent text exchange between my roommate and I left me feeling absolutely horrible as both a roommate and a person. I can sometimes sound too smart or haughty without intending to, sometimes to the point of mean, and I hate it. My dad even called me a smartass for it. Other recent personal events involving slip of the tongue have me taking a long look at myself, and I’ve decided that I need to change. I want to become more graceful in how I look, talk, and present myself to others. I’ve known about this flaw of mine for many years and thought that I was getting better, but it’s clear that I still have some work to do.

And so, one of my classmates sent me a couple messages today referencing a recent exchange that took place in person. We were talking about the Romance languages and I mentioned how because both Italian and Spanish both descended from Latin, two people from these languages would likely be able to figure out what the other was saying and hold a conversation. She’s Hispanic and speaks fluent Spanish and refuted my claim during that conversation. As she has better knowledge on the subject, I conceded.

However, she messaged me today saying that when she was watching and listening to Italians speak about COVID-19, she “indeed could understand some words and that I was right on that end 😂” and ended off her message with “Hats off to you for knowledge I wasn’t aware of 😂”

I was frankly surprised and got a feeling that I can only describe as “feeling blushy and embarrassed when complimented”. I left the message on read. I want to reply, but I don’t know how! How do I respond warmly and gracefully? I quite like her as she’s a very laid-back person and we think similarly in our shared major and take the same classes. She’s not exactly a friend yet and more of an acquaintance/colleague that I see / saw on the daily, but I’d very much like to be at least more friendly and casual with her. It’s difficult for me to make friends. I’m clearly overthinking this one thing, but I’m so anxious about everything else that happened involving wrongly worded sentences that I can’t help it! But I figured that if I’m gonna change, it must start with the small things.

So are there any tips or pieces of advice that could help me on how to write a proper reply? I know that I must sound so immature, and I’m not sure if this sub allows advice for platonic relationships, but I’d still like to listen / read if anyone has advice... Thank you so much in advance!