Struggles of being a Socially Awkward person

Do you feel anxious to meet someone you don't know very well? Do you prefer to send an email or a text message rather than make a phone call if you are given a choice? If your answer to those questions was yes, you probably are socially awkward. But relax, a lot of people are... just to different extents. How do I know? I've been reading about this stuff for quite sometime. I have always been awkward in social settings. I prefer to stick to my close set of friends and avoid situations that may require me to interact with strangers. I recently took a quiz that said that I was 67% socially awkward! (not surprising... but the quiz did not look very authentic so I'm not going to leave a link to it here)

To give you an example of the kind of struggles I face on a regular basis, recently, a person in my team whom I worked with closely, resigned. During his send-off, most people spoke a few words about him and thanked him. It was a small gathering of about eight people and I could have spoken if I had wanted to. But I over thought (as always) and decided not to because I felt only people who knew him for a long enough duration had the right to talk then and it would be silly of me to say something, having worked with him for only about a month. So I kept quiet. After the "send off", I felt guilty for not having thanked him as he was the only person in my team with whom I had had any form of interaction (except my manager of course who had hired me). By then, a lot of people were coming to talk to him, wish him luck etc. I had to find someway to say thank you. So, at some random point of time, I went to him and gave a kind of a mini speech that I had said at least ten times in my mind by then. It was such an awkward thing to do! I literally died of embarrassment; but at least I was able to say thank you. I still don't know how I could have done it in a less awkward kind of way. 

This was just one incident when I've felt the need to become more confident and social. I had no problem discussing about codes, logic and other work related stuff; but when I had to express a human emotion like gratitude, my brain just switched off. I've made up my mind to make an attempt at improving my social skills. I will do a follow up post on tips that I've found online, observed others follow etc that could help one become more sociable. I also hope to follow those tips and let you know about any progress I make. Do let me know in the comments if you have some tips.

Hope for the best!
Bye! :)