“By being interested in the cause, we are less likely to hate the effect. » Dale Carnegie uses these words in his book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Humans don't come with a manual, but if they did, this quote would be included in the chapter on making connections. Social interactions were always difficult for me to handle, being a naturally shy person, but everyday interactions were nothing compared to the challenge I would face during my freshman year of high school regarding a girl named Katie. The first day of my first year, I wasn't nervous at all. Starting a new year at school had become more of a mandatory routine than a milestone, so I wasn't very excited about being a junior though; I was excited. Over the next few days, that's where she was when I got to class, residing in the exact same spot and coloring every type of dinosaur known to man. One day, some of the other Panther Pals and I decided to decorate our classroom door. It was an activity I usually participated in and it was a fun way for friends to get to know each other. From what I had witnessed in previous classes, Katie was an artist, so I assumed she would like to participate. After the class announcements, I walked over to where Katie was sitting and asked, "Would you like to come here and help us decorate the door?" Katie looked at me like I'd just asked her to burn the dinosaur coloring book she treasured so much, and then she simply said, "No." As I cut out ghosts and bats for our Halloween-themed door, I thought about Katie's questionable behavior. She never seemed to want to talk to me, play games with me, do anything with me. Thoughts began to flood my head. "I'm a nice person, aren't I?" Why can't I contact this girl? Does She Hate By putting myself in Katie's head, I found creative ways to help her enjoy her math homework while still completing it and learning. Even though I wasn't very familiar with the video games she was interested in, that didn't stop me from helping her make a pie chart of the popularity of each character in a game called "Five Nights at Freddy's" that she played. plays. I began to focus more on Katie's interests and tried to think like her, and soon, being with Katie no longer felt like a struggle; it was fun. That's when I knew we weren't brought together by