30 Seconds of Courage

This weekend was a super fun time in the Burg. I didn’t get lots of homework done like I wanted to but I got to be very social and that was a nice change of pace. We spent time at Bluestone Vineyard, the Artful Dodger, and partying around Longview Oaks! Just one update before I get into the rest of the weekend – Remember the guy that asked Shauna to call him? Well, he now has added her to a group text and sent out the message, “What’s poppin” yesterday night. Needless to say, she is taking after me and has stopped responding. Idiot.

Okay, so this weekend on Friday afternoon/evening there was a graduate school dinner for all graduate students and their families. Of course, lots of CSPAers were there being social and loving on the free food. At some point during the dinner I decided this would be a perfect place to try to meet normal nice people who aren’t in my cohort… which evolved to Emily and Greg scouting out attractive men. Duh. After a few no-goes Greg pointed out two super cute guys sneaking in a little late. They sat down with their food and Greg and I started to head over to chat them up about joining the Graduate Student Association but then they got up to get drinks. Ugh. By this time my table knows what’s going on. I think they also know how uncharacteristic it is of me to go up and talk to strangers, even if I have a reason to. I think I took this as a challenge and thought to myself, I am never going to make new friends if I don’t talk to new people. So I used my 30 seconds of brave independent woman courage and walked over to talk to them by myself! It was a pretty monumental moment that has now been documented in history thanks to my friends for taking pictures. Haha but here’s what happened once I got over there:

I gave my GSA opening remarks and before I had to scramble to say something else intelligent the guys informed me about GSA because they work for The Graduate School and one of their friends is also on the executive board with Greg and Candace. They asked if I knew their friend and oddly enough the name sounded familiar (this never happens to me at JMU!) and it clicked. Their friend lives in the apartment across from me, we’re neighbors! After I said this they looked pretty surprised – and for good reason – they were dog sitting this weekend while their friend is out of town! They knew exactly where I lived and what my lovely JMU wreath looked like. This is where awkward Emily made her grand appearance by wishing them both a great weekend and leaving without introducing myself. I think I was just thrown off by the it’s-a-small-world-after-all effect that was going on… or my 30 seconds of courage were up. I returned back to my table and gave everyone the thumbs up. I did it! I made new friends! Even if I have no clue what their names are…

Later that night morning (2AM) I wrote a note to the dog sitters of Apartment D and taped it to their door. At this point, what did I have to lose? They already know I live here! The note basically just said, “Knock on our door if you are bored and come be our friends!” To our surprise the next afternoon when we were leaving our apartment we found reply hidden in the wreath saying to have a great day and we might have some company later. Who knew that making new friends could be so fun!? We did chat it up later in the day, officially exchanged names, and shared a few beers during the UofL football game (while checking the score of the JMU game). It was a good afternoon which led into a great evening full of more CSPA friends too. My apartment was filled to capacity with people! Can't wait until next time y'all!

The crazy moral of this story is something that I have known all along but have a very difficult time putting into practice. Meet someone new! Talk to people! Get to know them! Surprise yourself with 30 seconds of courage and it will pay off. I think I am going to have an extended network of new grad school friends and I’m pretty happy about it. To me, that is definitely worth a little risk. I told the two guys that I would probably blog about this so if they ever read it, I hope they are happy with the way they were presented (not creepy) and if they aren’t - I didn’t use their names in order to protect the innocent :)

Cheers to new friends, fall nights, and CSPA bonding!