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Nail biting. Foot tapping. Hair twirling. These small signs of nervousness may sound familiar for someone who has social anxiety. But social anxiety isn’t just nervousness — so for people who have social anxiety, these “nervous habits” can manifest in ways we wouldn’t expect.

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They aren’t afraid to put in the work.

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I’ve come to the decision that it’s fundamentally unfair that you exist.

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You joke about needing to be busy to be happy.

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Here you are, four years later, standing at the exact same spot you were as a freshman. Tugging on the cords of your graduation gown, messing with the stupid cap that never seems to sit right on your head.

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Mental illness does not mean that someone’s not normal. It doesn’t mean that I can’t do all the same things that others can. It just means that some things are harder for me. All of the people suffering from mental illness look normal and are normal. Our brains sometimes are harder to silence but I want to stress again that this doesn’t make us abnormal.

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Basically, every social situation in which I would potentially make a move can be low stress or high stress and low risk or high risk. Stress being defined on how much you feel like you’ll be rejected and risk being how bad the consequences will be if you get rejected and/or engage what is ultimately a failed relationship.

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I can 100% promise you if a real life or death situation was happening I would maintain composure, think clearly, and act things through accordingly, but you bet your ass I will not rest until I know for sure if I left my glasses on the table at home or not.

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I hope I’m dressed appropriately…I tried going somewhere between looking cool enough to be edgy, yet professional at the same time. I wonder if I can still return these pants…

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Do everything you can to make sure that you’re as prepared as you can be. Once you’ve done that, there’s nothing else to be done.