Hello, I'm Emily and I'm socially awkward.
Ok, that's not true. In truth I can usually hold my own in social situations, but I haven't always been the one to seek them. I usually hang back and have a friend or someone there with me to break into the conversation. I can only initiate so much small talk. As I've gotten older, I've gotten admittedly better. Still... I tend to always have a moment where I'm awkward.
For example...
1. I'll tell people WAY too much information. Like my life story. They'll ask how I ended up "here", and I start rattling away on how we married when we were 18 and unexpectedly found we were expecting Michael and came to "here" for Clark to be in school, but now he had to leave school temporarily for work...
Yeah. Word Vomit. It happens to the best of us. But it tends to happen to me ALL the time when I meet new people.
2. I'll agree with everything they say. They could say the world is ending, they hate puppies, and chocolate is the worst thing on earth-- and I would nod my head and say, "Oh my gosh, I know!" simply to gain their approval. This is not to say that all of my oh-my-gosh-I-knows aren't genuine, it's to say that when meeting new people they tend to come out more than usual.
There are many others, but not ones that I would care to share. Don't get me wrong. I trust y'all. I just don't want you to stop reading my blog, haha.
I'm getting better. The problem is that Clark and I are "in-betweeners" where we are. We're in the middle of the college kids and the older adults. When I say older, I don't mean it as an insult, but I mean the above 30s. This is simply because we're in our mid twenties. It's hard to find anyone our age and married, let alone with a child. So, we go one way or another and have to acclamate to our surroundings. It makes it a bit difficult sometimes to figure out who I really am. I mean, I feel like I'm trying to be a lot of things simply to have a social network.
I guess that's how we all feel sometimes... or all the time... huh?
What happens when you meet new people? If you have an tricks/advice please do share!
My number one trick for non-awkwardly meeting new people is just to ask them questions and keep talking. Of course if they say something you disagree with--I wouldn't start an argument but you might also not want to look TOO much like you agree with them. I know the temptation to do that, though!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rachel! I'm learning more and more that the trick is to get THEM to talk more to begin with.
DeleteIt's like looking in a mirror! I tend to say outrageous true stories that should only appear in your diary or sitcoms. However, I find that those who are scared away, I wouldn't want to be their friends anyway and the ones who think I'm hysterical, well, they are more pleasant to be around and appreciate my crazy.
ReplyDeleteBut my other trick is to COMPLIMENT on anything. Shoes, jacket, hair, purse-- whatever. People love being complimented and it opens up the door for more conversation like "where did you get that."
Compliments are definitely the way to go!
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