Living authentically: trusting yourself in a world that judges

Part 3 of 5: Beyond the Golden Ghetto

In college, I loved reading Thomas Mann's "Clothes Make the Man." This short story follows a character who, by wearing elegant clothes, is mistaken for a nobleman. But his charade unravels, and he’s humiliated when his true identity is revealed.

Ironically, I lived the inverse while living in the Swiss Alps: I wore trekking clothes and tried to hide any…