“The first ten seconds after meetin

“The first ten seconds after meeting someone new is like a valley of death for me. I don’t know how to get through it. A lot of times I’ll have a plan of something to say, like: ‘You have nice socks.’ Or maybe something nice about their hair. But the plan never works because my mind goes blank and I freeze. If the person is more outgoing than me, a lot of times they will bail me out. But if we’re both shy, we just stare at each other until one of us leaves. Recently I had an idea that I could pretend like I’m an actor playing a role. Maybe it would be easier to talk to people if I imagined I was a guy named Bill. But that didn’t work. I wasn’t very good at being Bill either.”