Greetings, all. I made a small conquest this weekend that I thought I'd share with the community.

First, some background. I'm a 21 year old college kid at a relatively prestigious university. I'm often described as a handsome, intelligent guy, and I have a lot of cool things going for me (play multiple instruments, good athlete, and write for a fairly popular website). The problem: my skills with women are (or at least, used to be) terrible. Due to some really bad habits I acquired in my upbringing, I've spent most of my young adult life as a needy, insecure, and selfish person. After an entire semester without friends, dating options, or a general purpose in life, I became pretty depressed. Things kind of culminated when I spent this New Years Eve at home alone with my mother. At that point, I decided that my life should be a lot better than it was, and decided to start making some changes.

It's hard to determine a single factor that's led to my progress, but I'll mention a few very helpful tools that helped spark the change.

1.) Reading. Specifically, the book Models really hit home with me and inspired me to continue reading and working on self-development. The self-help books and other literature that I've read since January have really helped in shaping my perception of the world and determining my place in it.

2.) Setting goals and keeping a daily journal to monitor progress Life becomes a lot easier when you have a clear idea of where you want to head and know what you need to do to get there.

Basically, I've been spending the past four months building myself, pursuing my own interests, while also trying to improve my skills with women. And it's been working. I have a lot more friends now, and girls have been much more receptive to me. It's like they can sense when a guy has his shit together and knows what he wants. Despite this progress - I didn't actually seal the deal with a woman for four months after beginning my self-development journey. Until this weekend.

I'm not a virgin, but I had only had sex five times (one of them was paid for) before Friday. The idea doesn't scare me; I just struggle with actually getting a chick in bed due to my lack of experience.

But anyway, I was on a weekend trip with some friends and acquaintances at a beach. We had gone out the previous night, but being that it was my first time beachin' this year, I ripped a few shots on the way there and drank some more one we arrived.

I was kind of drunk during the whole process, and I need to do better job at removing alcohol as a crutch in the future. But being that I wasnt at the beach to game, I'll give myself a break here.

Any way, one of the major things I've learned on my self-improvement path is to be nice and considerate to every one. Life's hard and we all need help sometimes. Moreover, you never know when you'll need something in the future, and it's much easier to find it when you've helped many others in the past.

As a result of this knowledge, I've been really nice and helpful to all of my acquaintances these past few months, including a not-so-attractive girl (who the old me would have typically ignored) that happened to be on the trip. This is where my effort paid off.

She had some different friends who happened to be on the same beach, one of them turned out to be really, really cute.

With liquid courage at my side and an introduction from my acquaintance, I began to have a conversation with the cute girl. We talked for a bit, and I subtly applied some techniques taught here (strong eye contact, building rapport, and gradual escalation). The next thing I know, we're lying down next to each other face-to-face, and she says something along the lines of "I've always wanted to hook up on a beach."

Shit. Okay.

We make out for a bit, and I half-seriously tell her that I wish we were near my place so I could take her back. I guess she agreed, because she soon requested that we go look for a more private location. She didn't have to ask me twice. I grabbed her hand and we hiked up the beach a few hundred feet and found a cave that was relatively secluded. There were boats passing by which was a bit awkward, but after laying down, she was pretty aggressive in undressing me and moving things forward.

After the deed, we swam for a bit, returned to the group, and parted ways.

Lessons learned: 1.) always be nice and helpful to others. 2.) Escalate properly, and she will take the reigns out of your hands. 3.)If you're looking for a place to hook up on the beach, bring a towel.

If you made it this far, thank you. I hope to share future success stories in the upcoming months.

Tldr: Been studying self-improvement for four months. Had sex with a hot chick on the beach as a result.