Since I graduated from high school six years ago, I have often found myself infatuated with friends and acquaintances who were often more than a couple of hours away (or across the country) more than getting out from beyond my house where I can actually interact with women viz-a-viz. While some social media game is hardly bad, I find, it's a bad crutch and that too much time spent on social media pursuing women is an inferior, often fantasy-world like alternative to physical social interaction. Part of the problem has been that I live in a somewhat rural area, but more that I just haven't been pursuing as many interests/activities that would get me into more constant contact with other people, particularly single women.

Over the past year, I've been working to combat my social media reliance by getting out more. The chief thing that has changed my life since I started out on this mission is when I began to go out swing dancing in a nearby city on a weekly basis. This experience has allowed me to do two things: 1) Gain confidence in a skill that I've always wanted to better myself in, especially being that I've always loved the idea of dancing yet have always felt awkward and stupid doing it, and 2) Interact with lots of women on any given night, honing my small talk, flirting, and (by partner dancing's mere nature) body language abilities. Really, swing dancing has changed my life! I've never been one who was particularly shy when interacting with women, but I've always been somewhat awkward and overly self-critical.

Anyway, to get to my main point: recently, I friended a girl on Facebook that I've crushed on for a few years. When I first met her, she was a barista at the Starbucks across the street from the grocery store where I work and we engaged in some good small talk from time to time when we'd come into each other's workplaces. At the time, she had a long-term boyfriend so I didn't make any moves. However, she is single now (been single for several months) and works as a waitress at a couple of restaurants in town.

Last night, I was studying elsewhere in town and messaged her, asking how her night was going. She told me she was working at one of her jobs (waitressing at a Chinese restaurant) and it was a very slow night there. Old me, with a few hours to spare after studying like I had last night, would have continued messaging and left it at that. However, this time I decided, "Fuck it! I need to just go see her! Besides, the coffee I've been consuming is making me hungry anyway. I'm down for some Chinese food!" On coming to this conclusion, I hopped in my car and buzzed over to said restaurant. To tell the truth, I was stricken by some butterflies in the stomach feelings and drove around the block a couple of times before I parked, wondering whether I should go through with it. However, I squelched this anxiety mostly, walked in, was met by her at the door, and proceeded to sit down and engage in some fine chit-chat. The place was indeed dead for the most part, so she had little to do and ended up talking and sitting across the table from me for nearly two hours between getting food for me and serving a few stray guests. It was fantastic; the night went by so fast! Before last night, I'd never conversed with her for more than a few minutes at a time. The flow of conversation went swimmingly; lulls, besides when she got up to perform waitressing duties, were practically non-existent.

At the end of the evening, I didn't number-close. However, I'm not in a hurry to get a date and the chance of running into her again soon are pretty high. Plus, I feel that she is totally digging me and I have little fear that she'll turn me down when I do ask for her digits. Next time, rest assured, I will definitely be asking for the number. Reflecting back on the evening, I feel that I accomplished a new challenge in my life by actually isolating a woman I like.