Ellen Degeneres said...

We all feel like idiots at one time or another. Even if we feel we're cool 98 percent of the time, that 2 percent doofus is poised to take over our bodies without any warning. It just takes a crack in the sidewalk - one little trip. We feel like fools, turning our back to look at it. "There's a pebble, somebody better put up some orange cones to warn the others. Everbody's gonna trip like I did." Then we look back that one more time to show the pebble who's boss, "Damn pebble, why-I-oughta..."

We do that because we think that people are staring at us, sensing our inadequacy, noting our flaws, mocking our clumsiness. But perhaps, sadly (though, for the purpose of this book, perhaps not - perhaps humorously instead), nobody is noticing. Everybody is too busy worrying that they look like idiots to care about you.

If you think that none of that applies to you, just take a look at your picture in your high school yearbook. Because closer to the surface than you think is that awkward adolescent hoping that people like her and praying that nobody notices how much she hopes that people like her and knowing that if people knew what an idiot she was, they'd never like her. Or maybe not. Maybe you'd just see how funny you looked back then and and have a good laugh. Either way it's worthwhile.

--Ellen Degeneres [My Point ... And I Do Have One]