I Made a New Best Friend (She Just Doesn't Know it Yet)

She's an artist, she's a writer, and she was featured on Forbes.com. Her name is Jessica Hagy and she is my new best friend.

Ideally, I would introduce our beautiful new friendship by recalling where we first discovered each other but alas, my memory ceases to recall yet another moment in my thrilling 18 years. Despite my failing memory (and possible early-onset Alzheimer's), the story continues with How to Be Interesting: An Instruction Manual. As a direct result of my dorkiness and book-worm-iness, I looked it up on Goodreads then immediately requested it from the beloved Queens Library. Several days later, I picked it up and upon cracking open the cover, I was immediately transmogrified into the most interesting person ever!

Just kidding I'm still pretty boring.

Despite my perpetual OMG-I'm-so-interesting-jk-i'm-really-incredibly-boring charades, I stand by my declaration of friendship with Jessica. Why? BECAUSE WE HAVE INCREDIBLY SIMILAR THOUGHTS. If I had Jessica's graph and diagram-making skills and if I had thought of this first, then I could have written my own version of How to be Interesting! But I didn't. I can live with that though. 

To close, here are the golden 10 steps to become more interesting:

1. Go exploring. 
Explore ideas, places, and opinions. The inside of the echo chamber is where all the boring people hang out.

2. Share what you discover.

And be generous when you do. Not everybody went exploring with you. Let them live vicariously through your adventures.

3.  Do something. Anything. 

Dance. Talk. Build. Network. Play. Help. Create. It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you’re doing it. Sitting around and complaining is not an acceptable form of ‘something,’ in case you were wondering.

4. Embrace your innate weirdness.

No one is normal. Everyone has quirks and insights unique to themselves. Don’t hide these things—they are what make you interesting.

5. Have a cause.

If you don’t give a damn about anything, no one will give a damn about you.

6. Minimize the swagger.

Egos get in the way of ideas. If your arrogance is more obvious than your expertise, you are someone other people avoid.

7. Give it a shot.
Try it out. Play around with a new idea. Do something strange. If you never leave your comfort zone, you won’t grow.

8. Hop off the bandwagon.
If everyone else is doing it, you’re already late to the party.  Do your own thing, and others will hop onto the spiffy wagon you built yourself. Besides, it’s more fun to drive than it is to get pulled around.

9. Grow a pair.Bravery is needed to have contrary opinions and to take unexpected paths. If you’re not courageous, you’re going to be hanging around the water cooler, talking about the guy who actually is.

10. Ignore the scolds.
Boring is safe, and you will be told to behave yourself. The scolds could have, would have, should have. But they didn’t. And they resent you for your adventures.