I have never wanted to be the center of attention. Indeed, this was my greatest fear. I didn’t want people looking at me, talking about me, or laughing at me.
As a little boy I rode the bus to school. The bus had to cross a railroad track. In those days there were no crossing bars that would come down to stop traffic ahead of an oncoming train. The rule was that the bus driver was to stop before crossing the tracks, and send a child running across who would look both ways for an oncoming train, and then wave to the driver to proceed.