It’s no secret that I dread attending events, meetings, or parties alone. Whenever I find myself in a new situation where I will potentially be meeting new people, or be in a position where I don’t know anyone and may spend the evening alone, I get really, really nervous. I feel like I won’t have anything to say or that I’ll be intruding on other people’s conversations. In the end, I’m always happy I went, but the going is painful.
On Wednesday I had an event where I would potentially know little to no one. It was a trivia night/fundraiser for the literacy store I volunteer with and a girl in my book club, who knows people on the board, invited the entire club to come as well. While a lot of people said they were going, I was showing up alone and wasn’t sure if any of them would actually attend.
Between work and the event, I hung out at Starbucks to get some reading done and got a call from my friend in book club asking if I wanted to meet up before the event. Suddenly this risk wasn’t so much of a risk. She met me at the Buck and we headed over to the store together. When we got there, a member of book club was already there and another two showed up soon after that. Before I knew it, my risk was kind of non-existent.
I was fully prepared to attend this alone. That kind of got derailed though. But to be completely honest, I was totally okay not taking this risk. It was nice to catch up before going over and then having a night to just hang out with the girls from club.
Attempting this risk showed me that planning doesn’t always pan out the way you want, and sometimes life is better off for it. For me to have attended this alone and met new people would have been nice and is always good for me. But hanging out with people I know was better.
little d, big year 