I have social anxiety.  That is the label on me.  So, when I went to a new school, I felt the pressure that I needed to make friends.  I needed to put the effort in to say hello or to find a group of kids to sit with.  That is what 95 percent of people tell me.

When I got dropped off at the new school and sat away from the other kids, before leaving my mom said, “God will put good and true friends in your life.  They will come to you.  Just be yourself.”

So, I continued to sit away from the other kids and decided to let my anxiety pass as I preoccupied myself with reading a book that I liked.

In the meantime, my mom had left me in the school gym where the students were gathering.  She told me afterward that after she left, she was worried about my anxiety and spent all the time away from me planning out in her head how she would teach me how to overcome social anxiety.  By the time, she came to pick me up from school, this was her plan.  To stay at the after-school barbeque and persuade me to talk to new families and the other kids; to participate and volunteer to cook the barbeque so I would be forced to talk to people.  She had hoped that I would agree.

When the retreat came to an end, I waited in a shady spot in the parking lot, to get picked up.  My mom saw me and came to me, away from the rest of the kids meeting their parents.  I wanted to go home and my mom said nothing because the “plan” became a waste of time of worrying.

At lunch, we talked and I told her that I did not make any friends but I had the best time.  Instead of worrying about my social anxiety, my mom’s words, “God will put good and true friends in your life.  They will come to you.  Just be yourself.” sounded in my head throughout the overnight retreat.  More relieved that I did not have to worry about making friends, I ended up having many stories of the event to tell.  I had a great time!

So thank you to my mom for not being pressured by the 95 percent of people always labeling social anxiety as something to worry about.  Yes, I still have social anxiety but I experienced that most important of all is to live in the present and have confidence in just being yourself and to believe God will put the right people in my life.