Why am I like this?

As I was walking through one of the laboratories in our office and headed for the door, I noticed that one of the guys who works in the lab was walking toward the same door with his hands full. I was part of the way out the door but I saw him out of the corner of my eye and was able to turn around and hold the door for him. He thanked me and commented on what good peripheral vision I had. That made me think about the term, "seeing something out of the corner of your eye," and mentioned to him that a friend of mine had come up with a saying, when he overheard something quiet that he might have missed under different conditions, that he, "heard that out of the corner of my ear." The lab guy laughed and said that was a good saying and we parted ways.

The problem is that I was the one who came up with the "corner of my ear" saying. Why did I say someone else had come up with it? Was I just being modest? Or was I afraid he wouldn't like it? By denying I'd come up with it, if he said, "That's a stupid thing to say," I wouldn't feel so bad. After all, a "friend" came up with the saying. No, I don't think it is either of those things. I just have a hard time taking credit for clever things I do. I guess it is a form of modesty or humility. I was always taught not to be boastful. Doing something to make yourself stand out was frowned upon in the schools I went to up through high school. I don't think it was school policy as much as it was the policy of the people I hung out with. We all tried to not draw attention to ourselves. We took a lot of effort to try to blend in. Not that it worked very well.

Anyway, here I am at 60 years old and I'm still afraid to take credit for good things that I do but I must be getting a little better. I'm writing about it here for all the world to see. All 5 of you!