Personal Narrative: Living With Social Anxiety

Social situations are always a struggle for me. Who do I talk to? How do I start a conversation? What should I say next? What if they don’t like me or think that I’m weird? Maybe I should just avoid the situation all together, but how would that make me look? All of these questions run through my mind any time that I am thrown into a social gathering or even a new class. Living with social anxiety can be very irritating when it is time to try and make new friends.
Anxiety is a feeling I know all too well. That butterfly in the stomach, heart racing, and chest tightening feeling that I get when I don’t know what to say as someone new tries to start a conversation with me. I’m sure people think, “How hard can it be?” But in all reality, it is