The Things I’m Scared to Do

From the start of this blog, I’ve written about all of the things I love to do alone. I’ve talked about travelling, cooking, and most recently going out to restaurants. I’ve encouraged people to grow their self confidence by trying new things, and burying the stigmas around social isolation. I’ve tried to become the perfect loner.

But I’m not perfect.

Far from it honestly. I do think the pinnacle of self confidence is being able to tackle any social situation alone or with friends, but trust me when I say that is still definitely NOT me.

I have a laundry list of activities I still fear tackling alone; things that through writing this blog and expanding on my understanding of being introverted, I’m hoping I’ll soon conquer.

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1. Attending concerts

This one may come as a shock to you, as it seems pretty similar to going to the movies alone. And really it is, minus one key aspect: crowds.

I hate crowds, and I don’t do well in them. An abundance of strangers, especially ones moving and dancing and yelling in an environment like a concert scare the hell out of me. At the movies, the relatively small crowd is sitting, quiet, and focused on the film. At concerts, the enormous amount of people often behave wildly, and the result is me becoming an anxious mess without a friend there to hang out and focus on the music with.

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2. Approaching strangers

I’m extremely self-conscious about irritating people, something that often holds me back from speaking to strangers out of a fear of annoying them. However, when paired with a friend, someone with whom I’ll share the burden of being a pest, I seem to perform much better. This was the case for me recently at a professional event, where I was tasked with gathering passersby to attend. I found that alone, I was nervous, and much less effective at selling the event. When paired with teammates to help? We crushed it.

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3. Going to the bar

My single greatest fear: going to a bar alone. I don’t love bars to begin with; they are the antithesis of my comfort zone. Wildly-behaving crowds, strangers, loud noises, ugh. Typically, I’d have none of it, ESPECIALLY alone.

Whats interesting is that this activity is one that I know many people have no issue with doing alone! Many of my friends, both introverted and extroverted, have regular’d bars by themselves on an otherwise boring night, with no issue whatsoever. I envy them and their bravery, and hope I’ll one day soon be able to join their confidence club.

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All three of these activities are ones I wish to try and improve on. I know I have it in me somewhere, and I hope that one day soon I’ll conquer them.

Let me know what activities you’d never fathom doing alone, or which of my list you’ve already conquered yourself!

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