The Myth of My Perfect Self: Learning to Live Without Flawlessness. AI-Generated.
Once, in kindergarten, I had worn out my teacher's patience with the chattiness of my class—except mine, because with my people-pleasing and nervousness thrown together, I was always on my good behavior. One day, I alone was allowed to sit in on our daily "rest" period, when we would lounge and snack on whatever came from our parents' lunchboxes and talk about each other.". I was normally always quiet during these, having no friends as such at the time. But today, at the teacher's instruction, the whole room was quiet. The rest of my class sat there, arms in foreheads in the darkness, staring at me while I crunched away on my goldfish and drank my little water bottle, just as embarrassed as I was oddly proud of being the only student who'd played by the rules.
