Written By: Katie Tetz
Michael Mateyko just wants to help out us socially awkward folk. So he’s creating a book with this intent:
“Relieve the weight of social anxiety by formalizing all communication. Fill out a page, hand it off, avoid eye contact.”
Not all of us were born with game. And sometimes, no matter how much dating/life experience you have under your belt, social anxieties can still creep up on you. Like when you’re interviewing for a job you really want, or trying to get your ex-girlfriend to take you back, or trying to flirt with your crush.
For example, the guy that I’m currently seeing has permission to make fun of me for the rest of time because the way in which I got his attention at Wurst a few weeks ago was incredibly lame.
I’ve known him for quite awhile. We met IRL.
That’s right. I know how to meet boys in real life now.
Wurst was my fourth stop that particular Friday night. I wasn’t feeling any “social anxiety” about my slow blooming crush on him because I was [incredibly] drunk. I guess I thought some grand gesture was needed to show him that I was into him. So what did I do?
I grabbed his butt. A lot of times.
Who does that? To someone who up until that moment in time was only a friend?
Then I proceeded to get more drunk. Then he offered to drive my drunk ass home. Then, before exiting his vehicle, I planted a kiss on him.
I mean, he’s still hanging out with me, so my incredibly lame and sloppy tactics worked. But I could have played that a LOT cooler. And if he hadn’t had a crush on me too, I would have been really mortified the next morning.
If only I had met Michael Mateyko before this and had acquired one of these:
I feel like strategically filling one of these out and handing it to him might have been a lot more cute and charming of me. It even gives you some great date ideas. Get drunk and play Jenga? Head over to makeout point? Yes please.
Three years ago Michael, a graphic designer here in YYC, ran a table at Market Collective. It was the Valentine’s Day show so he gave out little slips of paper that would assist people in asking strangers out on dates.
It was a hit. What was meant to be simply funny and cheeky actually created a lot of smiles in the recipients. Michael even got one back himself. [awwwwww.]
Now his goal is to create a whole book for people like me who have no idea how to flirt with boys! [Or land a job. Or quit a job. Or say no to a date.] If you too are socially awkward and would like some help, head here to back Michael’s project: https://komboh.com/sorry
Stay tuned this week for more samples of “Sorry”.
My personal favourite is this one where Michael offers us a quick easy way to deal with a breakup.
Fill this out accordingly. Hand it over. Problem solved.
