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Avoiding friendships and reality

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If you are new to making online friends, I can help you out by giving you tips on how to be safe, if you are interested. I tend to be pretty guarded here, but have made friends elsewhere online. It’s very important to keep yourself as safe as you can (knowing that the internet isn’t a safe place to begin with). Don’t give out your last name, if you post a profile pic, use one that hasn’t been used anywhere else. An anonymous email address is good, too. Maybe this isn’t so much an issue here, but if you are single, stay away from married people! (Many are looking for extracurricular distractions and don’t care so much about you as much as the fun you can provide.)

Making friends IRL does get easier! It’s like making the first few friends is the hardest part, and after that it becomes easier.

Know that when you put out the effort, not all people will be responsive. Those that don’t make an effort to have me in their life get put on the back burner. I still have their numbers in my phone, but I don’t go out of my way to have them in my life.

Rejection can and will happen. That’s ok! It’s a part of being vulnerable. We must put ourselves out there in order to have people in our lives. If something doesn’t work out with someone, don’t give up!
 
a dear, very shy friend of mine just joined Toastmasters and is having wonderful results.
I, too, have had wonderful results from toastmasters. It's a perfect place to work on your speaking, because everyone is there for that exact reason, so it becomes a very judgement free zone. I have learnt skills to help me with my fear of public speaking itself (though I still have a long way to go), but I have also been able to apply some of those skills into my casual conversations.
For example, maintaining better eye contact (something I used to be terrible in) and minimising nervous habits - I used to rock back and forth on one of my feet.
They have prepared-speech sections in the meeting, but there are also things called 'table topics' which are mini impromtu speeches. They are said to be perfect for preparing for job interviews but I have found them most useful for just every day conversations.The thought of doing table topics still makes me nervous every meeting, but that's ok because everyone is so supportive and understanding there. And slowly slowly I have gone from giving a < 30 sec talk my very first time, to now being able to some times give 1 min 30 sec talks.
Things will get easier :)
 
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