Next Monday you'll feel more confident. After the gym you'll feel more confident. After one more drink you'll feel more confident. After you get a better haircut, a better jacket, a better job.
You've been "getting ready" for two years.
She's standing ten feet away right now. She'll be gone in four minutes. No amount of preparation will manufacture the courage that only comes from moving your feet.
Walk over. Stumble through the first sentence. Let it be clumsy. Let it be imperfect. You will feel more alive in those ten seconds than you have all month.
Dinner ran three hours. She laughed at everything. You walked her to her car thinking this one's locked in.
Then: nothing. Two texts. No reply. What happened?
You did what most men do on a great date. You filled every silence, answered every question, and left her with nothing to wonder about. No mystery. Nothing to sit with when she got home.
Rule 3 of the "22 Rules" changes the ending: tell her a little, hold back the rest, and let her imagination do the chasing. The ghosting stops too.
That sentence contains at least five follow-up questions she WANTS you to ask. Where in Florida? What brought you here? How long have you been in the area? What do you miss? How does it compare to here?
She handed them to you on a silver platter. And you said, "Oh cool. I come here every week. I love this band. Ummm... pretty crowded tonight."
She smiled politely. Nodded. And never texted you back.
I was that guy for years. Talking too much. Listening too little. Panicking about my next sentence while she was literally feeding me the answers.
Then I found 22 rules that fixed the whole thing. Rule number one: shut up and listen. She'll tell you exactly what to say.
golden !taiyuu_otoko said:resistnance is the cause of all suffering. accept whatever feelings you have. don't fall into the trap of waiting for them to be gone tomorrow, becaue tomororw never comes. breath into the feelings, and experiences them. accept them for what they are. Accept YOU for who you are. you will always be changing, always be growing and learning. you will never ever GET THERE becasue there is no THERE. there is only HERE, and there is only NOW.
Acceptance is key. Breath deeply, accept who you are and how you feel.
Oh. Well, I'm not having much trouble with accepting myself anymore, so I guess that I don't have teen angst. loltaiyuu_otoko said:resistnance is the cause of all suffering. accept whatever feelings you have. don't fall into the trap of waiting for them to be gone tomorrow, becaue tomororw never comes. breath into the feelings, and experiences them. accept them for what they are. Accept YOU for who you are. you will always be changing, always be growing and learning. you will never ever GET THERE becasue there is no THERE. there is only HERE, and there is only NOW.
Acceptance is key. Breath deeply, accept who you are and how you feel.
Your buddy Dave has been single for three years and thinks "hey u up" is a valid strategy. Your other buddy Mike just got dumped and told you to "just be yourself."
You showed them her text. You asked them to decode the emoji. You drafted four responses and sent the screenshot to the group chat for a vote.
She's been waiting forty minutes.
Put the phone down. Stop crowdsourcing your love life. Type something that sounds like you. Hit send. Then go do literally anything else with your evening.
gee thanksVice said:Thank God that my brain is still in the developmental stages, so once I mature I won't have as many problems "re-wiring" my social and mental behavior like you older guys.