No offense, but can you not take over my thread, please? I appreciate any and all input, but it seems like this is getting a little derailed.
I'm not sure how I'd really describe my social skills. I mean, they're not great, obviously, but I don't think I'm THAT bad in that regard, so it confuses me as to why I can't attract people into my life. I'm admittedly reserved and quiet around people that I'm not familiar enough with, and sometimes it can take me a while to come out of that around particular people, but even with that "wall" up, I still try to be as warm and friendly towards everyone as I possibly can. And to the people I do open up around, I have more a fun, playful demeanor with. People have indicated to me many times in the past that they think I'm pretty cool and that they like me, yet, they rarely want to actually hang out with me. So, maybe you can see why I'm confused, in this regard.
"Fixing yourself" is a bit vague, really. I don't even know what the problem with me actually is, so I have no idea what I'm supposed to be "fixing". Not only that, but I've been working for years now to improve myself and be the best person I can be, so it's disheartening that after all this time, I'm still apparently not "good enough" for the world. I feel like I have to continuously jump through hoops; it's like, every time I meet some magical "standard" for attractiveness, suddenly that one is no longer good enough, and there's some new one I have to work towards, then once I hit that, that one is no longer good enough, and so on and so forth.
Not to enable Cosmo, or anything, but he pointed out that lots of guys who are WAY worse off still manage to date and have friends just fine. Most people are able to start doing these things in their teens. Nobody else has to jump through all these hoops and spend years alone "hoping for the best", so I don't understand why I do. I'm not perfect (who is?), but I could be a whole lot worse than I am, and guys worse off than me manage to do it just fine. So why not me?