Hi everyone, I just wanted to share my first ever cold approach experience. I've been lurking here for a couple weeks out of loneliness -- I had moved to a new city for a job and was struggling to meet new people. I'm in my early 20s, recently graduated college, and reading all these posts telling us to "just go up and talk to her" was completely alien to me because throughout my life the way I met new people was through existing friends, and I didn't have any existing friends here. I'm also somewhat socially awkward towards new people, so the concept of cold approaching scared the shit out of me. I'm also an introvert and have an engineering background so I wasn't exactly a social butterfly.

I hit a low point yesterday. I had just gotten off a long day work juggling three different projects and as I was driving back home, a big wave of loneliness overcame me as I realized that night was probably going to be spent on Reddit -- again. I remembered someone here saying "just go outside and socialize" but I had no one to go outside with! I paused a bit, then loudly said FUCK IT, and told myself I was going to get a sandwich from Whole Foods, take a shower, change into something other than my business casual clothes, walk to the park nearby, and eat my sandwich on the grass by myself.

And that's exactly what I did. Got a huge sandwich from Whole Foods, took a shower, put on some casual clothes and a pair of Ray Ban Wayfarers, and walked out. I was eating alone while laying on the grass but I was enjoying myself. The sandwich was fucking delicious and the weather and the accompanying sunset was beautiful. There were many cute toddlers playing next to me which made me smile from time to time. A small, local concert playing relaxing music was going on as well I was browsing Reddit on my phone but I felt way happier than being inside my room behind my laptop.

Suddenly I saw a very cute Asian girl sitting on a bench across the field, all by herself on her phone. She, too, was periodically looking at the kids playing and glancing in my direction occasionally. I thought nothing of it but after 15 minutes she was still there, alone. After some anxious thoughts I said FUCK IT and approached. As I walked towards her, I remembered someone here telling us to "make eye contact and smile". I did just that as I took a seat next to her and said "HI!". She looked startled at first and I asked "How are you?" in a friendly tone. She said she was fine, grimaced, and was at ease. I just started asking her questions. "Are you from around here?" "Where are you originally from?" She just came here from Thailand last month to study English. Her English was awful and she seemed very nervous about it, but I pretended it wasn't bad at all and kept asking questions and smiling occasionally and she reciprocated. I asked how old she was and she said 34. Holy fucking shit, I am 24 and she looked nothing like 34! I quickly got rid of the thought, however, and acted like her age was awesome. Silence took over after about 15 minutes of conversing about hobbies and other things, then I suddenly remembered reading on Seddit to "clearly state your intentions", so I did just that. I said "I think you are very pretty and would like to take you out sometime, what is your number?". She eagerly gave me her number and after smiling at her one last time, I told her I had to get going and to have a great night!

As I was walking back to my apartment a wave of euphoria came over me, replacing that feeling of loneliness from before. I was happy not because I got a number. In fact, I was expecting to fail my first time -- and I did somewhat by asking boring questions. I was happy because I got over my approach anxiety, finally got out of the apartment, and had a great time outside by myself. Cold approaching seems way less weird to me now. It really is as simple as "just go and say hi" and I can't wait for my first failure so I can become better in making friends and relationships. I hope this helps anyone who have yet to do their first cold approach. Thanks!