Hi ! I'm 23M and i'm having from my point of view a hard time socializing with people. I always was the shy and quiet kid that prefer to be alone in a corner than socializing and while I kinda accepted it and never wanted to break out of my shell for my first 20 years. Now is a different story since I want to get better with my socials skills.
Holding a conversations is difficult for me , I can hold it for maybe 5-10mins but most of the time it just end in an awkward silence. I'm trying my best to be interested in what the other people is saying but most of the time I really struggle to find a follow up or even start a conversation. I would love to hold a conversation with someone for hours with us jumping from one topic to an another but I feel like most of the time I hold myself back because there is a lot of thing that I would want to talk about but feel like the topic would only interest me and that would be pointless to put it on the table. People that are good at small talks really amaze me and wish I could do the same.
In a group setting , I'm mostly quiet , listenning to the conversation but hardly talking even when I have thing to tell. I feel most of my problem come from the lack of courage to speak up or even bring topic on the table and that's the reason i'm reaching out for help.
I really want to become better at those skills because I want to build meaningful relation with peoples but at the same time i'm scared to not be good enough.