I practiced a lot.  Like, I’ve been on a lot of first dates.  I’m really bad with failure and rejection, but that just means I need to practice that, too, and accepting that’s part of the process, and learning from those times (or the times that don’t go well that were out of my control).  I got creative about places to go that weren’t just “drinks”: lots of coffee, museums, botanical gardens, meals, parks, walks.  A lot of it took being at ease with myself, accepting my limitations but also accepting that some people may actually find me attractive – the latter takes a bit of mental gymnastics for me sometimes, but on occasion I manage it – sometimes it boils down to “fake it until I make it”. Not having expectations really helped me.  I ask a lot of questions, people like talking about themselves, and I try to be present.  People really love it when you actually pay attention to and are interested in them (bonus points for remembering at a later time something they said!).  Not drinking, or having to answer why I don’t drink, rarely comes up on a first date.  In general, my thought is that if I’m not comfortable answering this question, I should probably be spending my time working the program rather than dating 🙂 ~Anonymous