I should talk to this girl in my class...

Yo. It has been well established that despite my age, I am very inexperienced with girls. The reasons for that are long and many, the most notable of which is that I have suffered from poor self-esteem and extremely low confidence for the majority of my life. Maybe I'll write about my history with poor self-esteem later, but thankfully I do not feel like such a worthless swine anymore. I believe that I have conquered most of my insecurities. But despite that, I suppose that I still retain a degree of shyness. I need to get over it.

There's this girl in one of my classes that sits right next to me to my left. She is extremely pretty and seems quite intelligent. However, I haven't talked to her yet. I want to, but I haven't been sure what to say to her and how to introduce myself. Perhaps a simple "hi" would work best?

She intrigues me on a purely visual basis; I don't know anything about her other than she is pretty, has dark, long hair, and is very articulate and an eloquent speaker. She seems to know a lot about poetry. That intrigues me because I don't know nearly enough about poetry, but I would like to learn.

I do not like her; i.e., I have no crush on her. I have learned through experience that I shouldn't let myself develop crushes on people that I know nothing about. That said, she is intriguing to me because I wish to know more about her. And in order to do that, I must talk to her. I will be in this class for about 3 months, and if I don't talk to someone who sits right next to me, that would be really pathetic. ^^

How about I talk to her tomorrow? Why shouldn't I? What do I have to lose? Nothing.

One of the things that I have also learned this year is to NOT place women on pedestals. No matter how great a lady may seem at first, it's entirely possible and even probable that one will find out something that is a great turn off. I have also learned not to jump the gun on trying to get into relationships with girls; it's simply best to know them as friends first. Do not expect anything out of anybody. Love is not forced; it simply happens. Therefore, I will never force anything again -- no more awkward moments of me telling some girl that I barely know that I like her! In the future, the lucky lady that will land me will get no such help -- she'll have to unravel the Mystery that is me for herself!

I need to talk to this girl in my class, but not to scope out as a girl that I'd possibly "date." I only want to talk to her for the experience of overcoming my fear of talking to girls and to see if she is as interesting to talk to as my intuition tells me she might be.

Updates later!