Hello sedditors ,

A bit about me: I'm an 19 year old guy going into his second year of university this fall. I study environmental engineering. My main hobbies are listening to records and rock climbing (mainly in gyms because of driving distances). Being a natural introvert, my social skills are pretty bad after the small talk stage. In an effort to overcome this, I've been following seddit for a short while and read the introductory sidebar posts.

My question is this: what are some things that I can do to increase the number of people I come in contact with so I can practice the 'talk to everyone' mantra more? In essence, I'm looking to aggregate cool ideas of things to do. One of the posts had soup kitchens, and yoga studios listed. I do my best at the gym but a lot of times when I go, I just want to climb and get my workout in. I need other avenues to grow as a person and I want to meet some new people (ladies being very much included, which is why I'm posting to seddit) down those avenues.

Any constructive responses are welcome!