Imagine yourself at a party where you don't know anyone and you are sitting in a chair all alone because you are scared to meet new people. If you do meet someone new, you already know things will get awkward fast because you don't know how to start a conversation because you are shy. That's exactly how I have felt the majority of my life.

Growing up I kept to myself, I didn't go to many parties, if any at all, because I felt like people wouldn't accept me for who I was. I would always get nervous talking in class, even around people I knew, just because it was what I was accustomed to. I would never know if people would talk to me just to be nice to me, or if they were actually trying to be my friend. I was too shy to start any kind of conversation.

I was a big time introvert, I didn't like big crowds, talking in front of people, or talking to girls, mainly because I didn't know what to say to them. I didn't want to get friendzoned, which happened to me a lot in high school. It definitely sucked but I kept my head on straight and didn't let it bother me too much. I would get turned down a lot so I got used to it and started giving up.

Then came to the big world of college where I literally knew like five people going to the same university as me and one of them was my best friend and we were roommates so that made things better. I wast three and a half hours away from home and I got homesick a lot that first year. I didn't know where really anything was my first couple weeks of school and I would be running to class to make sure I was there on time and it was hard for me to meet people on campus because I didn't want to be that awkward guy trying to meet everyone he could.

Once sophomore and junior years came rolling around I was accepted to the athletic training program at UL and met all kinds of new people and a lot of athletes but honestly I had been around athletes all throughout high school so I was used to that kind of atmosphere. I guess you could say by then some of my awkwardness had worn off and I would talk to more girls and hang out with them and it was a lot of fun being able to meet new people and hang out with them.

Around that time I started talking to a girl that I had been friends with for a little while and after a football game at ULM we started dating and it was a long distance relationship so it was a little hard at first but since she was from my hometown I would go home a lot and hang out with her. I got used to being a relationship and it was technically my first serious relationship so I didn't want to do anything to screw it up or be too awkward. 8 months later I found out that she cheated on me and we broke up and it devastated me because I had worked hard and sometimes too hard to make the relationship work because I felt I had something good but I was wrong. I look back at it today and laugh because two months after we broke up she got engaged and I realized I definitely dodged a bullet.

Then came the start of my senior year and I wanted to shed all of my shyness and honestly it didn't all go away because I was still somewhat unsure what to say around girls because what happened with the relationship I was in. I met this girl that I connected with right away and we were really good friends and talked all the time about anything but that friendship ended after awhile. During this past spring semester I really wanted to get rid of all of the shyness and awkwardness and I wanted to find a new me.

So one day I was like you know what I want to step out of my comfort zone and not be like I was growing up so I decided to get involved on campus and it is something I won't regret because I have already met so many new people. I joined two organizations with one starting in the fall of this year and I also started writing for Odyssey. I never would have thought that I would have so many things to write about because all I had written about was sports. But, here I am writing this story and realizing that my shyness has gone away and to not be scared to get involved and experience new things. I don't know why it's taken me this long to figure this out but I am glad that I did.

If there was one piece of advice I could give it is to step out of your comfort zone and believe in yourself because you never know what will happen if you let go of your old self. It's okay to try something once.