Thanks, AJ. Just gotta learn to deal with the scary factor.
Thanks a lot, Elmer. I needed to read that for my own sanity. And I agree with it wholeheartedly. This has been a problem I've dealt with my entire life and I just want to break free of it. I never seem to look at the potential "positive" outcome, only the "negative", and it's hurting me. I honestly believe I'm my own worse enemy 100% of the time.
Funny thing is the other day, me and this girl shared a good amount of eye contact in the computer lab of my school, and overall, I got a pretty nice vibe from her. Unfortunately, she ended up leaving before me, so I just chalked it up to my lack of aggressiveness and assumed I'd never see her again.
I was way off. No less than 15 mins later when I get to the subway to start making my way home, I see her come in about 2 mins later, look in my direction, and sit right near me. Now, she had headphones on and was reading a book, but we were still sharing some glances.
Anyway, she gets on the train and I do as well, albeit a different car. Once we get off at the same stop, we make eye contact again, but this time she looks at me with a sad look and just kept going. I was also going in the same direction as her, but this time she took the headphones off and I had the perfect opportunity (no one else was around) to approach, yet I just couldn't for the life of me say a measly "hello" to this nice looking woman.
I usually just end up writing off a situation like that as a "fantasy", believing I made all of the sequences up in my mind to make myself believe that was what was going on when it wasn't, but deep in my heart, I know I'm just trying to make an excuse for myself.
To be honest, I wanted to cry because of how low and pathetic I've felt, but I just kept it in. This has literally happened to me over a 100 times, and sometimes with even stronger signs of attraction, but I just assume they're being nice because that's likely who they are around everyone. I just find countless excuses as to why they're really not attracted to me and often use those to justify my lack of an approach.
Really, Elmer, thanks for the wonderful post. I just hope I can start applying this mindset in my daily life because I want to improve and become a better person instead of being isolated.