How do I stop sabotaging myself?

I am an introvert and I am a bit of a loner but it is college so now I have to actually talk to people now. I just find it hard sometimes. I fall back into a habit of keeping my head down and pretend I'm busy and when someone says hi, I say hi back but I don't initiate conversation even though I've been invited to. I implied in a previous post that I need to start socializing and expanding my circle but I instinctively close myself. I need some advice on how to curb this behavior. What do I do?

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JakeeB · M

The easiest way would be to join a club. Or start an easy conversation. For girls, my sisters thinks the easiest way is to start off with a compliment lol. I was with her once and she started a conversation about how much she liked someone's dress, asked where they had gotten it, somehow got the topic into dresses having pockets (which is a big deal I guess?), and it just turned into a normal conversation.
After we walked away, she had been invited to join a club the girl was in and was kind-of already friends with her. I asked her if she was going to go to the store that the girl had said to look for the dress she had asked about, but apparently that was just a lead-in to get into a conversation, because my sister had seen the girl around and wanted to be friends.
Boys have it way easier. They can just invite each other to play video games or watch a game lol. But even then, most of my friends I met through sports, school, or clubs.