Pulled up at around 10pm to a local college bar and it was damn near empty. Sat down and had a beer while I watched sports. Overheard two guys talking about music and they were talking about bands that I liked. I went over after 10 minutes and said “what yall listening to?” And I mention a bunch of bands that they liked as well. We got into a group conversation and I was talking and connecting soo well with them that I got their snapchats and told them to lmk when they go drinking. During this time, it was like 10:30/11:00ish and people started to come in. We were laughing and talking and people that came in saw that I was a social guy and that made the whole group look good. I could tell through the corner of my eyes some girls would look over at me when I was laughing with them and having fun (no I wasn’t loud). Eventually, some guy and his group pulled up and his friends were very shy, I could tell because they were only talking to themselves and standing around awkwardly. One of them comes to order a drink and we started talking to him and he told us all about who he is and what he does. He had a trimmed beard so I complimented him by saying he can “rock a beard, man!”. He even introduced me to his group and they were still kinda stiff like, maybe because they weren’t drinking yet. Anyways, I later went to take a piss and saw more people which I’ll admit: I felt like I was going to be inferior to everyone because when I show up to these places, I expect all the dudes to be total chads but I was wrong. I saw a lot of people there being lame and some ugly, dorky mother fuckers. I felt great. I then started talking to more guys who were standing around and they were super receptive and friendly because it was better for them to be talking to someone than standing on the sidelines looking like a total jackass. I know what it’s like to be anxious in a room full of people you don’t know, so I can relate to them. I remember that’s all I ever wanted whenever I would go out, someone to talk to me. I even straight up ignored chicks and tried to focus on having FUN and practice my social skills and reading body language and stuff. So far, everyone was super nice and that put me in a great mood. This was my first time in months at this college bar (I went to the city last Friday), so I was a little worried about fucking things up.

One of the guys there was a little older, standing around, I talked to him and he was cool. He then tells me “hey man, you’re tall asf, you should be picking up chicks easily right now” to which I just said I was there to drink, I’ll explain later. Everything was going fantastically, until I ran into a dude who was taller than me (like 6’7”!) and we talked for a bit. Nothing bad happened, super friendly guy who because I bet he saw me chatting with other people so it made me look like a chad. Problem was they were smoking pens and I thought they were nicotine pens but it turned out to be THC and I haven’t smoked weed in 4 months so when I took a few hits wondering why it tasted weird, the guy told me “it’s good shit” and that’s when I knew I was going to get fucked up. I was in the bar drunk but also stoned so I went to the bathroom again to piss and when I came out, some girl with her friend group were pushing through the crowd and she looked at me, smiled and checked out my crotch (or looked down at my height or smthing) up and down. She turned her head around and then quickly looked back at me again to see if I caught her. Fucking awesome. Problem was I was so incredibly fucked up so I just thought really deeply. Like I went over to one of the exits and the guy working there told me it was an emergency exit and I had to go out through the front. I then stood there paralyzed for like 30 seconds and then caught myself and I knew I had enough fun for one night, I was cooked. I stumbled out through the crowd and fist bumped a lot of people I met through out the night and one of the bouncers told me “get home safe man, you don’t look too good”.

I can easily say this was the most fun I’ve ever had at bar. I didn’t hit on any chicks because I wanted to work on my social skills first. I went into a bar by myself and left EASILY one of the most liked guys there. There were some other conversations I had with people but I obviously don’t remember a lot of them and they weren’t too different from what I mentioned.

So I learned that social proof is important in bars BUT that just means to talk to people already at the bar and get there EARLY so you can have genuine conversations. I biggest mistake with bars was coming in when EVERYONE else was there which is not great because it’s going to be a serious uphill battle talking to people when:

  1. It’s jam packed
  2. Music is turned up louder
  3. People already engaged with each other

I wasn’t looking for IOIs that night either, I bet I missed a few, besides the obvious one I saw earlier. Next time, maybe I’ll try to talk to chicks. Any help? Did I do well?