2011's Biggest Failure: The Socially Awkward Penguin

I generally look at 2011 as one of the best years of my life, and while my Year-In-Review next weekend will touch upon that quite a bit, I thought I would first take a good hard look at one of my biggest personal failures in 2011: my closest personal relationships being hurt by the culmination of three years of relative social isolation.

Allow me:

I graduated from BGSU in 2008 and my overall social life has since taken a backseat to my career. In simpler terms, I am basically a career man. Many of my free nights over the past three years have been filled with studying, working, and planning for the future. Thanks to all the dedication to my craft, I have found all the monetary and professional success that I dreamed about in college.

Unfortunately all this focus on myself has completely twisted me from the overly-social person I was in college. I once neglected my studies for time with friends. I used to rush from a shift at Meijer to the BG bars for wings and drinks. How many Friday nights did I give up video games for Otsego High school football games? How often did I choose to see five or six of my closest friends instead of my family over the holidays? The answer: a whole hell of a lot.

The last three years have been relatively lonely for me (please, folks, I said relatively), and this past weekend I was made painfully aware of how my recent anti-social attitudes have affected me: I am kind of a jerk. I do not mean to be a dick by any means, but I do find it hard to sustain a worthwhile conversation with even my closest friends and not somehow slip in a smart-ass comment that has no relevance whatsoever. What the hell is wrong with me?

Because I blame a lot of my current social awkwardness on my lack of social drive over the last few years, my most immediate goal of 2012 is fairly obvious: to get my shit together and put myself out in front of my friends more often. My studies, writing, personal projects, etc. will certainly continue to be a major part of my regular routine, but I will be starting the new year with a markedly different schedule that will absolutely force me to get out of the apartment and away from my own "success."

B3 out.