thank you for the great advice, bethandmanly! truthfully, I'm less shy around friends and other people, but when it comes to talking to a guy for the first time, particularly the one at my high school I've had a crush on, thats when I become really shy! my friend has been telling me to smile and him and say hi, so I am working on that, and then if I'm lucky enough to actually have a conversation with him, I'll use your advice, see what he's interested in and not talk about myself too much. I'm just always paranoid about looking nice, not having frizzy hair (which is rare for me) and if I actually do talk to him, not sounding completely stupid and obvious that I have a crush on him (word would get around if he did find out because his brother is in my grade!)
but I have to say thanks again for the advice from both of you. I definitley want to be less shy, and not just around the guy I mentioned above that I probably talked about far too much.
**and bethandmanly, I like having advice from people who are older than I am, because they often have more experience in the situation I'm having trouble with!**