First post on here, long time lurker.

I was at our local YMCA waiting in the lobby for my Dad and Sister to finish up the tour of the place for their membership. A girl I went to High School with walked in, talked with the girl at the desk, and then sat down to wait for a bit. Normally, i'm pretty adept at making random approaches, but for whatever reason I froze. I got lost in my head thinking of all the different ways I could present myself, all the different reasons why it would be "weird" for me to go up and talk to her. I thought the women at the counter would think odd of me, or this girl would shy away and not want to talk any further. This was not the reality. This was a false reality, projected by my brain.

The reality of the situation was, I could have walked up to her, I could have presented myself in a polite fashion, and nobody would've thought anything of it. They wouldn't think I was "weird", they wouldn't have thought I was being "creepy", just an old friend catching up, and we could've had a dialogue which could've led to me getting her number. I didn't do any of that. I just sat there, and watched her walk away. Sure enough, there was my Dad and Sister holding the door open for her as they were just finishing up their tour. Chances are, i'll probably never see her again in my life. Maybe she would have been delighted to see me? Maybe she would have taken one look at me and wouldn't want to talk to me at all? I won't know now.

Every experience you go through in approaching will build you into a better person. Positive or negative, they build the foundation for what you are to become. If you choose to avoid the experience, you are not gaining anything. That's exactly what fear teaches us to do, to not build, only to avoid.

My question to you all is: How can you build a house if you fail to lay down the foundation?