I was taught or picked up this sort of self-deprecation thing as a child and I think it hurt me more then it gave me any sort of advantage. Me, too. It's a cu

I was taught or picked up this sort of self-deprecation thing as a child and I think it hurt me more then it gave me any sort of advantage. Me, too. It's a cultural clash. I had a really fragile up and down ego as a kid, and I tried to cover it up with the most normal, boring, appropriate modesty I knew, which in my family meant self-deprecation, but at school it didn't seem normal to people at all. In retrospect the irony seems obvious. When I felt self-conscious about my problems I tried to use self-deprecation as a cloak of normality to hide behind, but everyone else saw it as using deviant behavior to intentionally draw attention to my problems. It's weird how long it takes to realize how many of the assumptions you inherit from your family aren't shared by everyone else.