HOW TO ENJOY YOUR LIFE AND YOUR JOB - 150

CHAPTER 1 FIND YOURSELF AND BE YOURSELF: REMEMBER, THERE IS NO ONE ELSE ON EARTH LIKE YOU I HAVE a letter from Mrs. Edith Allred, of Mount Airy, North Carolina: "As a child, I was extremely sensitive and shy," she says in her letter. "I was overweight and my cheeks made me look even fatter than I was. I had an old-fashioned mother who thought it was foolish to make clothes look pretty. She always said: 'Wide will wear while narrow will tear'; and she dressed me accordingly. I never went to parties; never had any fun; and when I went to school, I never joined the other children in outside activities, or even athletics. I was morbidly shy. I felt I was 'different' from every-body else, and entirely undesirable. "When I grew up, I married a man who was several years my senior. But I didn't change. My in-laws were a poised and self-confident family. They were every- thing I should have been but simply was not. I tried my best to be like them, but I couldn't. Every attempt they made to draw me out of myself only drove me further into my shell. I became nervous and irritable. I avoided all friends. I got so bad I even dreaded the sound of the doorbell ringing! I was a failure. I knew it; and I was afraid my husband would find it out. So, whenever we were in public, I tried to be gay, and overacted my part. I knew I overacted; and I would be miserable for days. afterwards. At last I became so unhappy that I could see no point in prolonging my existence. I began to think of suicide.