Comment by Mana sou on Home page

Just toughen up and talk to him, I'm telling you the guilt of not doing something is heavier than being rejected, take this from me who watched my crush get married too then asked her years later and she says she did like me but because I was a woss I missed out so just gathered up whatever courage you have and start a convo about probably shred interests, just talk about something you both like and see where the convo goes

maybe try to approach him with something like "hey I heard you play violin and I kinda want to play violin too but(...) for how long have you played violin?" even if you aren't interested in violin or anything he's interested in, just try to act like you both are very similar and have similar interests and try to smile while speaking to him also look him in the eyes while speaking and make it obvious that you're listening to everything he's saying, the conversation has to be mostly about him bc we're more interested in what we do than what others do. if you say something wrong just joke about it.say something like "da** what am I saying haha"

not rlly advice but go and ask how long he's been playing for ? which orchestra he goes to, how he feels abt violists, idk as a violinist that's a pretty cool way to start a convo

If you two really are similar, don't you think your classmate feels the same way you do? How would you feel if someone tried talking to you with the intent of wanting to be your friend but had a hard time expressing themselves? Use that feeling as your basis for making a decision of what you want to do.

It really is a matter of having the courage like Bigballs, Joykyller and AiChaa shared. You got a ton of topics from all your research to talk about. What's really cool is if you can play to your strengths as an introvert of actively listening, you can ask questions about the things you know he likes and let him do most of the talking. And if he says something that you happen to also like, you can say "me too" and share your interest/relation in the topic (if you both have an interest in one topic, a conversation could last for as little as 5 minutes to as long as hours) Common ground (interest in the same thing) is how many friendships are formed. He might be surprised how easy it is to talk to you and from there, it will be so much easier to talk again. However don't say things you don't mean, because long term, that could backfire on you (hard to keep up lies if you don't actively keep track of them). Once you get comfortable with each other (in that you can talk without feeling shy or nervous), you can tell him your honest feelings if you want.

Good luck. Conversational skills are really just a skill that you can only develop by practicing. I can guarantee as someone who used to be afraid to talk to others in life while I was in school (only talked when it was necessary)