Many people are outgoing; many are just awkward. I just happen to be a very awkward girl. If I get left in a room with another person, I stand still and glance around the room. I look everywhere. Except at that person. Because in my brain, if you avoid eye contact, you avoid awkward conversation that usually ends with a "Hey" and some awkward smiling, which usually ends with silence. Awkward right?

But this year, I believe I have truly broke through the walls of being socially awkward. From outfits to actually conversing with others. There were many methods that I finally began to open up.

1. I started to join more clubs.

Actually, I became an officer in two clubs: Beta and UNICEF. Most of the officers in those clubs were upperclassmen. And last year, upperclassmen were the people who I was the most afraid of. But I wasn't scared of them because I thought they would beat me up; I just felt like there was a boundary between me and an upperclassmen because of that mere age difference. BUT this year, I finally began to open up. In fact, Beta club helped me open up more. From an insanely cool and outgoing club sponsor to incredible friendly officers, I began to speak comfortably with them. I could joke around more and I could start to be my ugly self around them. I'm seriously looking forward as the year progresses because if I can already start to joke around with the upperclassmen, especially several of the seniors (It's a huge accomplishment for me), can you imagine how much I will open up at the end of the year?

2. Go outside of my comfort zone.

Now socially awkward often means being awkward during conversations. However, I believe that clothes also help you add confidence in a conversation. Whenever I wore baggy clothes while talking with older people, I always felt shy and lame around them. I felt like a child. But this year, my outfits completely changed. Last year, I absolutely despised crop tops and semi-tight shirts. Nowadays, I can walk around school comfortably and confidently without drooping my shoulders. Forcing myself to step outside of my comfort zone made me feel like I was becoming more confident about my body. And the more confidence I had, the better I could speak to others. Because the main reason why I couldn't talk with others easily was because I thought why should anyone talk to an ugly turd like me?

3. Attend more school events.

Last year, the only times I left my house was for tutor classes or volunteer opportunities. However, this year I'm starting to attend more conventions such as the Beta Convention, FBLA State Leadership Conference, and the HOSA state competition. These trips usually involve tons of classmates from each grade, which provides a great opportunity to get to know other people more, especially people from other high schools. Additionally, these trips are often attended by sociable people who can easily make conversations with you. And trust me, from personal experience, the people at my school made some random conversation with me and now I talk with several of those people all the time. Amazing, right?

4. Don't hide in a corner.

I know it may seem easy to just hide. But trust me, the world is so much brighter if you take a look around. No one is like those school movies you see nowadays. There's nothing to be afraid of. I used to purposely avoid conversations. I shut myself outside from society completely. Until I started realizing how I needed to open up more. And in order to do that, I had to get out of my hiding spot. So I obviously began to follow those previous steps to open up. And for real, that would have never happened if I had not realized that it was time to open up and stop being so socially awkward.

5. Don't wait for people come to you; you go to them.

The most common mistake I did last year was wait for people to come to me. I felt awkward talking to people first unless it was absolutely important. But now, I start to talk to people myself. In fact, there's this one junior girl in my math class (I'm a sophomore). I sometimes actually talk to her myself first. I started this last year with a junior guy, who was a sophomore at that time. I talked to him often during classes mainly to ask about classes. But hey, it's a start. Nowadays, I can easily converse with other upperclassmen easily. I can text them comfortably and actually be able to talk more rather than replying with short responses. For example, I made more conversation by telling this senior guy about what was going on.

Overall, I have to say: I have never felt more proud of myself in years. To finally break through my shell of being socially awkward is truly a huge accomplishment for me. And to those out there who are like the past me, I hope these steps will help you and don't forget: be you and only you. Don't change yourself to "fit" in. Because, to be honest, we all know how that helped out Cady Heron right?