We’ve all been in this type of situation before. You’re out and about, shopping or whatever you’re doing, when your mom runs into a friend of hers. When they start talking, you know that the original 20- minute trip just turned into an hour. You try to walk away, but lo and behold, that friend has a kid the same age as you, AND they go to your school. You’re forced to meet each other, and frankly, it can go either way. The person could be overly friendly and carry on the conversation, or they could be awkward and you’re left to carry on the conversation. You go up to them, and as soon as you open your mouth, you see something flicker in their eyes, and you realize: this is an awkward person.

We all know who these people are. The people who’d rather hide in the corner than be forced to meet someone new. They are terrified of conversation, and even more so of people who are completely confident in socializing. Now, when talking to these people, it is easy to catch the awkwardness and make the whole conversation just one big blob of awkward. There are several ways to prevent having such conversations, as well as actually socializing with them.

Tip #1: Pay attention to the conversation. This one might be hard, given how long your attention span is. If it’s about as long as a squirrel’s, well, then, good luck. If you don’t pay attention during a conversation, the person that you are talking to may think that you don’t want to listen to them and that you don’t care about what they have to say. This is a mistake that occurs quite often in conversations with people in general. 

Tip #2; Avoid silence at all possible costs! Silence is golden, except for when it’s awkward, and then it isn’t. When you’re in a conversation, silence is the universal sign for “We have nothing else to talk about, and now we’re waiting.” For what you ask? Waiting for Lord Sauron to come and take the ring of power and take over all of Middle Earth? Or perhaps waiting for the Death Eaters to storm Hogwarts? Whatever it is, it can take a long time, and it just ends up being extremely awkward for everyone until some brave soul steps out to break the silence like Frodo volunteering to take the ring to Mordor, eventually succeeding and earning the gratitude that he/she deserves. We must rise to the occasion and conquer the silence which so controls our conversations nowadays.
Now my last and final tip; If all else fails, try to be patient and understanding. If you manage to crack open the hard exterior of the awkward person, you've struck gold! For all you know, they've never opened up to anybody before. So if you're acting as if you have ants in your pants, STOP IT! This is a very important moment in their life, and you're ruining it because you're thinking about that piece of cake that was left alone in the fridge, unguarded, just waiting to be grabbed. So push aside your thoughts of cake, and press on and hear what they have to say.

Now if you’re in a conversation with someone, these three tips are practically guaranteed to help you succeed and rise as an example to those who need help. If you find that these three tips do not work for you, well, then find what is comfortable for you and do it.