The adults sure liked me for it! Why, then, didn’t the kids? It never occurred to me—not for a moment—that in trying to sound confident, I sounded horribly arrogant. In trying to be helpful, I sounded parental. In trying to make friends, I made a fool of myself. Over and over again. To be truthful, a lifetime of comments between then and now in which people I loved harshly criticized my social skills (with good intentions) has often brought that sense of rejection to bear.
