Awkward Social Situations

[King sns]

I read this thread, and thought, "Wow, I have not had an awkward social situation in a long time, I can meld everywhere!" Immediately followed by an awkward social situation

So, I went to my boyfriend's friend's going away party- (where the bf's friend's family made up most of the people there.) The boyfriend kind of started going off to do his own thing, (most people realize that when they take me some place I can mingle easily.) So first he went to the store to get ice, then he was talking to all sorts of random people. There were a lot of little kids there of all ages and random people who's names I couldn't remember. I haven't exactly bonded with his group of friends yet, either. So the first half of the party was this extremely forced social interaction on my part. To top it off, I couldn't remember anyone's names and felt very intrusive to come to their fourth of July/going away cookout. Like I may as well have joined some random family's cookout on the street! Aw man, it was awful. Finally, my boyfriend's friend Marissa came along. I am friend's with her on facebook and have met her a few times and had enough comfort around her. She also seemed to feel awkward so we stayed together by default.

By the end I had gotten to know most people and it was better.

 

[strawberries]

do people define small talk as talking about the weather or 'how's work' and bland talk like that?

if you don't like small talk - at least try to guide the conversation onto big talk. be active in a conversation rather than ride it out and then complain afterwards that it was just small talk.

the most awkward social situations i find myself in are social work situations that aren't with my work-friends - just straight up colleagues who i have to tolerate. some of the people i work with are grumpy, old, arrogant men who seem determined to suck the fun out of every situation. i have an internal battle between wanting to fun it up and cultivating professional relationships for the sake of career advancement. sigh.