<p>Hi, I need some advice here and hopefully people here can provide some solid advice. </p>
<p>I am gonna be in 2nd year at college and feel like I need to make some changes in myself. Basically, I am quite shy and feel like it is affecting me a lot. I am a friendly person and do make friends but the problem is I have never had many really good friends or best friends. It was a lot different when I was younger but for some reason, I just haven't built deep connections with many people for the last 7 or 8 years. </p>
<p>It's also hard for me to let me guard down b/c I don't want people to think of me in a certain way. Part of that probably had to do with my parents being somewhat restrictive with curfews and all but for whatever reason, I couldn't get past it in my freshman year of college. </p>
<p>I'm a pretty nice person and feel like when I make friends, we get along well. The problem is I don't have a lot of what I consider friends for life or best friends. It takes a lot for me to break down my wall so to speak. If I feel comfortable enough, I can let my guard down and freely joke around and say what I want around those people. But otherwise I'm not exactly the talkative type. </p>
<p>I would like to feel more at ease about expressing myself and being friends and good friends with more people but I've kind of built up a wall and I'm actually comfortable with it but I feel like if I keep up the way I am, it just will do more harm in the long run. </p>
<p>In my opinion, the only way I can let my guard down is to join a fraternity. I feel like by doing this, I can befriend a lot more people, let my guard down, have fun, and be accepted. But I think there are risks to this in that my grades could slip and I lose sleep and sleep is something I need. I guess sleep I could get over if I lost some of that but the grades slipping part really concerns me. </p>
<p>Also, to those who would know, what are the chances that a fraternity would accept you? For those who had personal experience, what % for example of the incoming class of got accepted into the frat or sorority you were in. Were most of the people who tried to get into that frat accepted? Only half? How does it go?</p>
<p>Overall, I'd basically like to live the college life of meeting a lot of new people, partying a little, and meeting girls and I feel like a fraternity is not my last possible way to do this, but it's something that I think that I need but I'm kind of not sure at the same time. </p>
<p>Any advice would be appreciated. I've always wanted to change my shyness b/c it has been a deterence for me but at the same time, it's not something that I am ashamed of either. I've lived pretty comfortably as a shy guy but it scares me now that I am getting older and don't feel like it is changing. I have that instinct inside me to meet lots of new people and be talkative but I just can't let it out.</p>
<p>Please help.</p>