“Unlocking the Secrets of Selflessness: How ‘Happy to Help’ Challenges the True Cost of Being a People Pleaser”
In “Never Give Up” (this reviewer’s favorite essay, followed by “It’s Never Too Late”), Miller shares how she and her husband wanted to introduce their children to skiing, since they lived near a ski mountain. In typical people-pleasing fashion, she attempts the sport without having taken a single lesson and while she never becomes an expert, she manages to make it to the bottom. She is not having fun, though, and so she takes some lessons on the bunny slope. This essay is relatable to other skiers, and her descriptions are spot-on. She describes how to “snow plow” down the mountain: “I had learned how to lock my skis into a pizza shape and zigzag across Candy Land painfully slowly. I was in a considerable sweat from the considerable effort both to slow my skis and to avoid collision with the forty freestyling toddlers paying absolutely no heed to where they were going—which is admittedly what they usually do, just as lower speeds.” Her experience was a joy to read, both fun and enlightening, and she ends the essay with words of wisdom.
