Your weirdest quality is often your most memorable one. Don’t sand it down.

The things that make you easy to describe are usually the odd ones. Nobody remembers a person for being broadly fine, and the quality you have been quietly filing off is often the one your friends would name first if asked. Sanding it down produces someone who fits more rooms and is harder to recall afterwards. Smooth and forgettable tend to arrive together.

Find the thing you keep apologising for and leave it in once this week. The laugh, the obsession, the way you say things. See whether anybody minds, and notice who moves closer when you stop hiding it.