I'm a college student, I just started lurking seddit last year around this time and over the course of the last school year I made major improvements, went from being a 20 year old virgin to having several notches in my bedpost, so to speak. I do know that it shouldn't be as hard going back into a target rich environment in the fall but, I'm anxious because this summer has been awful for me.

Anyways, I made the mistake of spending the summer in the heart of Mormon Country, Utah County, Utah. For the most part some really good things happened for me, I found a fun job, got to be in a movie and even got to call some h.s. age baseball games on the radio. But my social life suffered, being an ex-Mormon made it even more difficult for me mentally.

What I found was that towards the start of the summer, I was still optimistic and willing to talk to women or even other men, but as the days have gone on I've become so discouraged to the point of not going out at all except for work. It was really tough because of the presence of the LDS culture down there and the average age of marriage down there. The responses I got ranged from "I'm married" to "What do you think of marriage?" to, upon finding out I'm not LDS, "You're not a member? Go away.".

Even other men wouldn't associate with me because I drink, have long hair and just don't fit the mold of a BYU boy. So I sort of gave up, decided to work on working and getting into better shape for when school starts.

Even the few bars and only nightclub were filled with married LDS people just there to dance.

My only good experiences this summer were visiting home where I had friends already and knew where things were.

I know I can do it when I get back to school. I know I have the ability. I'm still worried that this AA from summer is going to carry over, just because I've grown used to not opening at all.

So I guess my bit of insight in this is to continue to approach even if you think you'll get rejected, if anything to just stay in the same good habits.

But my question for all y'all is this, what do I do in order to bounce back and build my confidence back up mentally? I know I have the ability if I can get over that AA hump again like I did last year.