My Progress thus far
I have never really been a social guy. The reason being is I saw no immediate use for being a social "wiz." However, after joining Wealthy Affiliate, I finally understand the critical importance of simply sharing an idea with another. It is fundamental to understand and respect one another in opinion and responsibility because no matter your occupation or reason for coming to this place, there will always be another out there with uncanny similarities to your own personal experience here in this world. I already knew this and the thought disgusted me.
Why take away from my own individual value by admitting I was the same as someone else?
This is the thought I had over and over again whenever I was thinking about sharing ideas or concepts. To be quite honest, socializing became a "rebel" cause to me. In other words, I avoided it as much as possible because I was afraid.
Afraid of what?
I was afraid that others would see my ideas and laugh. Laugh at my ambition, laugh at my goals because I am too young to possibly know more than those who came before me. So I "turtled" up, became anti-social and created a shell to shield myself from that criticism.
Until one day I met a girl.
I never had a real girlfriend before because my father and mother loved to move around and I just thought it would be better to save a broken heart. I didn't want to get in a relationship with someone to only move to another place a few days later and leave her behind.
So I kind of gave up on the whole idea of "love."
One day I was sitting on the bus to school. I was coming in the middle of a school year because my family decided to buy a house in a small town. I had just made a new friend and we were fighting over the window seat. While we were fighting, his sister came over the seat behind us and plummeted to the floor between us. She told us that she was going to stay there until we stopped fighting and she told her brother to move to another seat. So I sat next to this strange girl for the entire ride home. This continued for a few days until I finally decided to break the ice and talk to her.
From there, sparks flew.
We were best buds and we did everything together. We sat at the lunch table together, we hung out and played Mario Kart, and we even talked when there was nothing else to do. It just felt so easy talking to her, and I knew the feeling was mutual. One day, I decided to ask her out below a starry sky near the creek at her house. She of course, said "uhhhhh yea!"
I can't even begin to describe the absolute fun I had in the 6 months I was with her! It was the first time I went out and talked to others, helped them, encouraged them, and even cried with them. It was the first time I actually took action on what I thought was right.
Even though the relationship with her didn't last long, I finally understood that I was missing out on the easiest way to help people. All I had to do was simply ask about their life and most people are willing to talk, especially the ones who need it.
All I had to do to make another happy was to show them kindness, to do something crazy and out of the ordinary, to show a stranger that someone cared, kind of like what that girl did for me that day on the bus.
Jump over the seat and stop a fight, whether or not it be financial, relational, emotional, or an emergency.
Simply show a stranger that they matter.
Show them love.
Recent Comments
1
Cool story Sean, I think for many people online including myself we all suffer from some form of social anxiety. But don't ever let that discourage you from anything. I read this quote from a blog I saw earlier today "doesn't matter what anyone thinks of you because they don't know what you know until you show them!" And you're absolutely right, sometimes going out of your way to make a strangers day makes all the difference.