So last night I made the decision I was going to go out and just try to talk to as many people as possible. Wasn't looking for numbers, dates, anything like that, just breaking out of my very socially anxious shell at least a little. I decided I'd go down to the coffee shop and just hang out, practice some calligraphy, enjoy an espresso.

Encounter #1: This actually happened even before I got to the shop. Two girls were walking down the sidewalk towards me, I felt my anxiety start to spike but kinda shoved it to the side. Forced myself to make eye contact as they got closer and stopped them with an "Excuse me, do you have a second?" Told them my phone was dead and asked for the time. I did my best to hold eye contact for the 10 seconds we talked (even though it felt like a century). They seemed pretty relaxed and smiled in return when I did. Didn't ask for names or anything, I'm just trying to take baby steps at this point.

Encounter #2 was at the cafe. Ordered my drink and stood off to the side. I'm a bit of a coffee dork, so I decided to chat up the barista since it wasn't horrendously busy. Asked him how fine they ground their espresso, how many bars of pressure they pushed through their machine, etc etc. He seemed a little aloof at first but warmed up a tiny bit towards the end.

I didn't get a chance to try and talk to any girls at the shop, since they were either a) with their boyfriend or b) with a large group of people and I'm just not comfortable trying to break my way into that group setting quite yet.

So yeah, it's far from spectacular and to most people this probably seems stupid, but it was at least a first step for me. I got a little more confident as the day went on so I guess that's something?