Live Life Out of Your Comfort Zone

Hello, my friends!  I hope you all had a good week and are pumped for the weekend!  I have one week left until I go back to school and being the nerd I am, I’m excited to go back.  Last night I took a leap out of my comfort zone and attended the UNH Honors Student Night Out.  We went to Flatbreads Pizza downtown Portsmouth then walked to the 3S Artspace for PechaKucha night. The reason why it was so out of my comfort zone is because social situations make me super anxious.  Being in college has encouraged me to push myself to do things I wouldn’t normally do, despite the fact that I know I would have fun.  My anxiety has always gotten in the way of me doing things with my peers.  When I arrived at Flatbreads, I was super nervous and did not know a single person.  It didn’t help that it was very loud making it impossible for people to hear me.  I tried to distract myself with the pizza, but because I can’t really eat by mouth (only soft foods), it made me more nervous and self-conscious.  I used a fork to eat the cheese off the pizza because that’s all I could eat.  If I was at home, I would have been more comfortable and eaten how I normally do at home, by smelling it to get the flavor.  Now admitting that fact is really hard for me because it’s a little embarrassing to say that I smell my food, but I do get flavor from the scent of things.  It’s just how it is.  When I go out in public to eat, I only order things I can physically eat.  It makes me more comfortable.  Anyway, after dinner, we walked to the PechaKucha Night and I ended up sitting next to two complete strangers, but I made the best of the situation.  I started talking to the person to my left, who happened to be of the male species which is surprising to me because I don’t do well talking to guys.  I find it ironic because they are so much less judgemental than girls, but whatever.  So I struck up a conversation with him (for this I will not put his name out of courtesy) and it went well.  I was slightly surprised because whenever I meet new people I tend to either over talk or stay silent, although more often than not, I end up word vomiting.  He didn’t seem annoyed by my lack of silence and dare I say even enjoyed our conversation.  I used the notes app on my phone to communicate because it was loud in that venue too, but the very few times I didn’t use my phone, I think he got the gist of what I was saying which made me feel confident that I’m not as bad at first impressions as I thought.

Every time I do something out of my comfort zone, I end up being happy that I did it.  It’s just getting over that hump of the first twenty minutes or so.  I took a risk by talking to strangers and it worked out for me which encourages me to do it more often.  It is so much easier when I am in a quiet space though.  My goal for my sophomore year of college is to continue to venture out of my comfort zone and be more involved in campus clubs, events, and activities.

What’s your goal for this year? Drop your answer in the comments!  Thanks for reading my latest rambles!  Stay beautiful!