I've always found it hard to make friends and usually leave people with a terrible impression, if I'm out of my realm. Alice is so lucky to have an automatic smile set on her face. Even when she was very young the corners of her little mouth had an upward bend at the edges. I'm sure that affects how others responded to her, so easy from the start.

Me, I've always been shy and scared, and my face shows it. The corners of my mouth turn down, and the tension holds them there. Even when I put on a lame smile, they move down before they move up again. One of the things I've always experienced is that people then misinterpret my feelings and intentions. I'm scared, they think I'm mean. I'm confused or unhappy, they think I'm angry. I have a handful of friends, but the ones who stick around in spite of me get to know the real me and become dear.

Oh, I'm friendly enough to strangers and I've worked hard at being more socially polite, more outgoing, more positive in public. Sometimes I even get people to laugh. (Actually, more than I try, because I often talk as weird and off the wall as I write--I don't seem to have access to the right words for things so I have to use unusual ones to fill in, and that makes it more interesting, I guess.)