“Yes, and…” is the golden rule in improv. Keep Calm and Say Yes. It’s the slightly above average Jim Carrey movie where saying yes magically has the power to completely transform some scrub into, well, I don’t know because I only read half of the Imdb summary. Saying yes causes spontaneous, whimsical opportunities to pop out of some ingénue fairytale featuring Zooey Deschanel and I decided to try it…kinda.
During the 15 minute walk from CG that is the bane of my existence, I decided to challenge myself to go out of my way to say hi to everyone I recognized and came across that night. That is, within reason, of course (to the girl in my seminar I saw walking to Mel’s– I would’ve said hi if you weren’t 20 steps ahead of me and engaged in a conversation with your friends.) Lerner Pub was a breeding ground for organic run-ins and line culture stimulates conversation since what else are you going to do while waiting with friends for 30 minutes?
That night at Lerner Pub I said hi to people I had a class with once, girls I hadn’t hung out with since my first year, and a few people in between. I was surprised by how many people not only remembered I existed (sounds ridiculous, but isn’t that all of our worst fears?), moreover, remembered that I was in Brazil for the past six months. My night quickly took me to suite for karaoke night, featuring a drag queen host, an impromptu strip show and a little bit of Broadway magic (making for a top notch snapchat story).
The positive vibes from that night affirmed my decision to push myself into social situations. I often let my social inhibition take over and I think, “Oh, I know them, but I can’t say hi since I don’t really know them,” or, “I can’t ask her to hang out because she’ll think I’m weird.” Can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t ,can’t, can’t, can’t. Sound familiar? Maybe not, maybe a little. Without divulging too many details about my own neurotic insecurities, let me say that this anxiety has paralyzed me on multiple occasions and honestly, I think it’s because I don’t want to confront rejection, so I might as well avoid confrontation all together. This reasoning is absurd, but who ever said fear was rational?
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*images via someecards.com and easygovernment.com