If you know me, you know that I am shy. I like people. I don’t mind talking to people at all. But I am TERRIBLE at starting a conversation with people that I don’t know. I don’t know why. I watch what other people do that seem to effortlessly engage total strangers in conversation and I think one of two things:  thought number 1 – I am definitely not smooth enough to pull that off; thought number 2 – I could totally do that. However, whenever I have this thought, I try whatever it I saw that person do and it doesn’t go quite so well for me. Maybe I need lessons or something.

So, for today’s task, Ann challenged me to go to a Starbucks and strike up a conversation with someone. So I packed up the computer and decided to work for a while trying to find someone kind enough to talk back to me. Let’s just say that it took a while. I started at the La Mirada Starbucks, but every seat was full, both inside and outside. I was immediately intimidated so I decided to try the La Habra one. It was significantly less crowded – meaning I got a seat inside. But it also meant that there were a lot fewer people to try to talk to…

My first observation was that everyone was wearing earbuds and either watching something online or listening to something (or maybe just trying to look like they were listening to something so that creepy people wouldn’t try to engage them in a conversation?). I tried to talk to two guys in earbuds and each time I got a grunt in reply. Not very successful so far. So I worked for a while, looking up each time someone came in, trying to find the sucker nice person that would talk to me.

I kept trying, but I was not having any luck whatsoever (did I mention that I am terrible at this?!?!). I gathered my computer and I was going to go try sitting outside thinking maybe the crowd out there would be easier to engage. And just as I was about to walk out the door, I was saved by my t-shirt. Now, I do have to mention that I specifically picked my Final Four shirt out this morning, hoping that it would be a helpful conversation starter (look at me being all intentional – it’s like I’ve learned something through all of these challenges) – and boy was it!

As I was walking out the door, a guy that I had been sitting near for over an hour (he was wearing ear buds and it seemed that he purposely never made eye contact with me, so I didn’t even bother trying to talk to him) pointed at my shirt and said, “Hey, did you go to the games?” I ended up talking to Will for about 15 minutes about the games, the process of buying tickets, selling extra tickets. It was a nice conversation.

Takeaway:

Sometimes the little things can make a big difference. I don’t know why I thought to pick out this shirt. I don’t usually plan things like that out (maybe this challenge thing is really getting to me!). But it occurred to me today and I went with it. And if I hadn’t, I might still be sitting at Starbucks trying to talk to somebody!