We’ve all been in this situation.
You’re home about to enjoy a nice relaxing night watching Netflix and your buddy calls you and tells you about a party you have to come to. After trying to resist you concede and end up going to the party, because hey, Netflix will always be there tomorrow.
You might get some free drinks, maybe talk to some girls, who knows, it could be fun. WRONG. The second you get to the party your buddy disappears and you’re stuck in a room full of people you don’t know. Don’t panic. Here’s what you need to remember to survive.
First things first, don’t panic.
You may have been planning on clinging to your buddy for the night, but that option has gone out the window. Accept it, you’re on your own. However, you’ll survive. Chances are other people will see you in your current situation of distress and take pity on you. This is good. If the people hosting are good hosts they will come up, introduce themselves, and talk to you for a bit. If they’re great hosts they will take you around and introduce you to other people and start little conversations that you can then build off of.
When talking to people that you’ve never met before, remember one thing.
It will always serve you better to be interested rather than interesting. By nature people like talking about themselves so if you appear interested in what they are saying they will likely just keep talking (the same holds true for dating.) This way you will be able to sit in a conversation for an extended period of time without actually contributing much at all. Remember to appear engaged in what they’re saying even if you could care less.
If you find yourself in a situation where you need to be the one to start the conversation there are some things that you need to avoid.
Two things that you never want to talk about are religion and politics. These tend to be issues that people are vehemently passionate about, so it’s probably a bad idea to bring them up the first time you meet. You can always fall back on the weather, but it’s pretty boring and is only good for a few minutes of conversation. Make observations about them, about the place you are, and about what they’ve been talking to other people about and build off of that.
It’s important not to panic and just be yourself.
Also, if you’re feeling especially anxious remember that you can always excuse yourself by faking a phone call or something and just bail. Like you said earlier, you can always go back home and watch Netflix. But, since you’re already out you should really try and engage in conversation and meet some new people. Who knows, they might become even better friends than your buddy who dragged you there and ditched you in the first place. I wonder where he went anyway.
