Absolutely. There's some element of the new here, and newness and vulnerability go hand in hand for me, as I imagine they do for many people.

By staying conscious of the negatives, I hope I can mitigate them. That way, I'm less likely to abandon my fly-fishing class halfway through, and then have to live with the shame of failure.

I have more past shame about weight and its loss and gain than with anything else, so it's natural for me to learn these lessons and play out these trials on that field than on any other.