This is me, insecure cave person, saluting you for this story. I can add one hopeful observation, just because I’ve been around for a few more decades: maybe the most significant gift of the aging process is the way it whittles away at whatever obsession you may have with what other people think about you. At some point, you realize they simply don’t spend all that much energy on judging you at all, and any judgment they do render is, in truth, about themselves. Among the many things we cave people are afraid of is aging, but I’m here to tell you it’s quite liberating.