To say that I am shy is an understatement. Truth is I am socially inept. I have social anxiety and have problems carrying conversations. If I manage to muster any courage to talk to someone, the conversation usually ends in a minute or two.

Anyway a fellow redditor, a week or two ago, described himself with having this problem too. To overcome his shyness and anxiety he would try to talk to a few strangers everyday. His post gave me the inspiration or at least some impetus to start talking to strangers. Every night before going to bed, I would think of few openings and map out a plan to go to the park nearby work to talk to at least 3 strangers but every day passed with me just walking by those unfamiliar faces. It doesn’t matter if it’s some dude sitting there reading his paper or some HB eating her lunch. I just couldn’t face my fear of talking to strangers. But it was also a bit more than just that. I also feared of being judged by the stranger. I was afraid of what they would think when I sat down next to them and started talking.

In the beginning of this week, I decided to go to a discount store. While there, I saw quite a few people; some young and some old. Yesterday, I visited the store again. I saw this middle aged woman looking at dog foods and started talking to her. I told her that I recently read somewhere on the internet about how raw food diet is actually better for dogs. We didn’t talk for a long time, but I explained to her some of the benefits. She told me she had a little dog but not the breed. In hindsight, I should’ve asked her what type of dog she has and perhaps make a joke how it would probably ruined her dog’s cute appearance if she sees her dog with a raw drumstick or fish head caught in between the jaw.

The next person that I spoke to was standing in the candy aisle. I asked her what her favorite is. I told her I was visiting some friends and needed gifts for his kids. I talked about how expensive the candies were ($10 for a bag of mini bite sized candies) and how I haven’t had or bought any candies in a while. We parted ways, me thanking her for advice and dropped the candies a few aisles down.

All in all, it wasn’t anything spectacular. Both ladies were middle-aged and not on par w/ what you would call attractive, but in my mind I had at least accomplished a little of what I wanted to do: and that is to overcome my social ineptitude. It’s a baby step compared to talking to a HB but we all most learn to crawl before we walk, and walk before we run.

Ps. I felt it was easier to talk to people who were standing, perhaps because there was more informality and less familiarity compared to sitting down to talk with someone. Should the weather permit it, I think I might venture out to the park and try again.