Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 111, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1916 — FOR THE SHY YOUNG PERSON [ARTICLE]

FOR THE SHY YOUNG PERSON

The Ability to Forget One’s Self Is to Add Much to the Joy of Life. One of the best ways to conquer a weakness is to forget it. And the very surest way to strengthen and confirm it is to brood over it, and to bemoan the fact that you are hampered by such faults. Some young people never attend a social gathering without a preliminary paralyzing of their faculties by recalling the fact that they are shy. One, as she takes off her hat and smooths her hair, before going downstairs where the guests are assembled, is saying to herself:— “Now, if I were a different sort of person, I should have a real good time tonight. But just as soon as I go into company I grow shy and tongue-tied, and I can’t think of anything to say, and if I do, I’m afraid to say it. I shall be glad when the evening is over.” And, of course, she is, since that is what she expects. How different it would be if she could only forget she is shy, if she should say to herself: “I feel it in my bones that I’m going to have a good time tonight. Everybody will be agreeable, and I’m going to be as agreeable as anybody else. I shall like people and they will like me.” Then the story of the evening would probably be very different. Those who train children emphasize the Importance of overlooking a great many things. Emphasizing a fault overmuch tends to confirm it rather than to eradicate it. And what is true of the children, is true of us older ones. Keeping the thought of your weakness continually before you is the very thing that will make its conquest impossible.—lrish World.