Throughout my life, I have been a decently social person. While I may come off as extroverted, I have my fair share of times where I prefer to be alone. Sometimes it’s by choice, but there are other times when it’s not. Some of these unintentional times occur when I’m at a social event and having a hard time talking to new people. I would just talk to people I knew and not branch out and try to meet anyone new. This left me feeling bad about myself because I was letting social anxiety get the best of me.

For almost every summer, I wanted to spend a lot of my time in my room playing video games or watching shows. And for almost every summer, I enjoyed it. However, I realized during my freshman year of college that I really don’t enjoy the loneliness that comes with this. There were times throughout the school year when I was feeling down and I would just stay in my room and sulk in my own feelings. This ultimately led to me feeling even worse overall and I knew that I needed a change.

Once I realized the problem, I would always make an effort to text my friends to hangout, whether it be sitting in the dorm together, going to the gym, going to eat, etc. This genuinely helped me because I would have a fun activity to do and not be lost in my own thoughts. That’s why this summer I am making every effort to remain physically active and social. I made new friends and I enjoy spending time with people much more than I do rotting in my room. Whenever I sit down at my computer, I just think of all the other fun things I’m missing out on by being alone, and I reach for my phone for a quick, “What are you up to?” to my friends.