What’s more frightening than stray hairs in the bathtub?  Meeting people at school!  But have no fear, here are some conversational guidelines to help you through the chaotic and daunting world of the school social system.

1.  Be interesting!  Do you have the personality of a doorknob?  Don’t worry, this isn’t as hard as it seems!  Watch infotainment shows, the news, read blogs, keep up with what’s going on in your world.  This way you can have things to spark conversations such as:  “Hey, did you feel the earthquake last night?” or “So did you hear that (insert celebrity name) got arrested for (insert latest escapade here)?”  And if all else fails, the perfect scape-goat is always to harp on about the weather or to ask to borrow a pencil.

2.  Be prepared to listen.  In order to meet and connect with someone, you need to figure out what interest them.  Once you get a conversation rolling, listen to them and “find the hook that makes your similarities more visible.”  Once you have a common ground, you’re smooth sailing from there.

3.  Be interested.  It’s the rule of prom-dates:  He was ugly until he asked you to prom, and now he doesn’t look so bad.  Listening is pointless if you’re only listening while waiting to talk about yourself.  Try listening with a genuine interest and you might find that there’s a world beyond yourself that has a little to teach you.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 30th, 2008 at 9:13 am and is filed under Back to School Blues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.