I have very similar experience as the author. I come from a small town in a poor country. On top of it's culturally inappropriate to brag about oneself. My firs

I have very similar experience as the author. I come from a small town in a poor country. On top of it's culturally inappropriate to brag about oneself. My first years living in a big city in North America was very hard on me. Everyone is at the center of the universe. Everyone is just too cool, too savvy and so high opinion about themselves to be friend with someone like me. After couple of years, now I can see through the BS and the whole high self-esteem culture behind it. North America is a very unique culture where having a (often unrealistic) high opinion about oneself is seen as virtue. Immigrants like me, who are not familar with North American cultural schtick, can easily fall for the whole high self-esteem ruse.