You know the feeling: no matter what situation you find yourself in, you end up doing the most awkward thing possible.
At a party, you put on a song no one else likes, or you knock over the bowl of chips and have to spend an hour sweeping them up.
You are helplessly, hopelessly awkward.
But you know what? That’s totally cool. There is nothing wrong with that, and in fact, it’s really a great trait to have for a few reasons.
Being awkward makes you observant
Spending so much time worrying about how you should handle a social situation makes you great at being observant. You’re more in tune with what people around you are thinking and despite being unable to pick up on social cues, you can read the feel of a room better than people who spend less time worrying about what people around them are thinking.
It also makes you sensitive to others
Because you’re so uncomfortable in social situations, you know when other people are uncomfortable. Where most people would ignore the person standing by themselves in the corner, you know when they need a kind word or a smile.
It’s a skill that many people don’t have because they haven’t felt isolated or awkward in social situations. But a socially awkward person has empathy for the way that other people feel since they have felt that way themselves.
It makes you genuine
You know those people who can effortlessly come into a room and make everyone feel like they care about them – they make all the friends and ace job interviews because they can make anyone like them on the spot.
But there’s something so phony about all of it. And while other people might fall for it, you know that friendship is something that takes time and trust to grow. And that makes you more genuine because you don’t try to force familiarity with people that you don’t really know.
You know who you are and you don’t try to change it to make other people like you. And your sense of self isn’t as fluid as people who can change the way they act in different social situations.
Guys like awkward girls
Not being the most popular girl in the room makes you more approachable to guys. And awkward guys know that awkward girls are more sensitive and won’t reject them in a mean way.
So, while you might think that being socially awkward makes you less attractive to the opposite sex, the opposite is actually true.
Seeming approachable, but more importantly being real, is always a very attractive thing.
You have real friends
Being awkward means that you tend to have fewer friends, but the friendships you do make are much more meaningful.
Awkward people are connected to their friends through bonds of shared interests and mutual respect that shine through in spite of social boundaries that less awkward people aren’t affected by.
That means that the friends you make tend to be friends that love you for who you really are and those friendships last forever.
Just remember that no matter what, you are who you are. And it’s hard, if not impossible to change it. It’s much better to learn how to love yourself for who you are already. And it turns out that if you’re socially awkward, there’s a lot more to love than you might have thought.
Plus, if Karli Kloss and Taylor Swift can be openly awkward, why can’t the rest of us?
via GIPHY
