Your Worst Nightmare: Small Talk

If you would have known that you’d be sitting in this corner, flipping through tumblr, trying to evade eye contact for the last 45 minutes, you would have told your friend you ~conveniently~ got sick and couldn’t make it to this dumb party.

I mean, you must have been sick in the first place when you accepted the invitation to socialize. Instead of staying in the comforts of your own home. Away from people you don’t know. Avoiding small talk.

If socializing sounds like it’d drain the energy right from you, you might be introverted. So what do you do if you’re placed in a situation where you have to engage in casual conversation among strangers?

Let’s just skip the fact that this scenario may not happen to you often -- or that you may be one of the rare recluses who has yet to be in this predicament (if that’s the case, please comment after reading this blog). For whatever reason, you got yourself into a setting where you only know one person, and you have to find a way to make the rest of the night not suck.

While this may sound like a nightmare, there are ways to get around to the awkwardness of small talk.

The first step is to embrace the fear of being approached or approaching another. There’s a mildly cheesy quote from Bruce Lee about courage, “Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the ability to act in the presence of fear.”

Use your hyper-awareness to listen in on what people are saying then introduce yourself to someone new or jump into conversation.

At the end of the day everyone is just as concerned about themselves as you are. No one is going to remember if you stuttered or had a really long pause during the punch-line of a joke, so swallow that fear and go for it!

A side note to the people who invited you: If you know there won’t be anyone at this event your friend will know, DO NOT leave them high and dry. Introduce them to people you know and make opportunities for your introverted friend to make connections.

I’m not saying you have to be tied at the hip all night, but make sure to give support to the person YOU invited.

Even as an extrovert, making small talk is difficult. It's really not the end of the world if you bow out and head home early, but challenge yourself to make the most of an uncomfortable scenario. You may end up meeting someone as introverted as you.

In the next blog, I'll be flipping roles and will talk about how to approach hosting an event.
For now, tell me what some of your tricks are for making the most out of an awkward situation. How do you approach people you know?

This has been your friendly extrovert, Alex -- until next time!