ELena, I completely understand how you feel. I think other people can perceive when we don’t trust ourselves. In my case, I think this is what is preventing me from making new friends. I am always afraid of saying something or starting a conversation because “I might not say something interesting or it might come out the wrong way”, so most of the time I just sit back and wait for someone to talk to me instead. I know I have lots of potential, I love to do many things, but I’m scared to start doing for fear of failure or criticism. I am now 30 years old and I am starting to realize that I need to get on my feet because there is no turning back. All my life I’ve waited to shake off my shyness but now I’ve decided that my insecurity is not taking me anywhere. On the contrary, it has left scars on me personally and professionally. I have been shy even in my profession and I know people do not like that; and this makes me uncomfortable because I want to be liked by others. I’ve always wished I was more pro-active and outgoing…God knows I’ve tried, but this is who I am and I can’t change it. All my life I have said, one day I will be someone very important and people will stop taking me for granted. But that’s just a desperate thought. I know we can’t satisfy the whole world, there’s always going to be people who don’t like us and others who do. I think we just need to spend more time worrying about ourselves (making ourselves happy) rather than trying to please everyone else in the world because at the end, the world won’t care if we were happy or if we enjoyed life.