All of my friends know that I do not like to smile.  I have no objection to the act of showing joy but I have crooked yellow teeth which I find embarrassing.

I also don’t like to have my photograph taken.  I tell everyone that I’m a vampire and don’t show on film.  I hold magazines and napkins in front of my face. I duck behind nearby strangers and small, helpless children.  I’ve never liked posing for pictures or seeing the results of begrudgingly permitted snaps.

I dislike how I look, in general.  It’s been a sore spot for my entire life.  I grumble about my wild frizzy hair, my droopy eye, my sagging neck.  In any grouping, I find the most radiant person and hover in their shadow.  I volunteer to hold the camera so I won’t be in the shot.

Is it clear to everyone?  I hate having my picture taken!  And I hate my smile.

Someone who would prefer to be unnamed admonished me today that I should tender true smiles, not tight, closed-mouthed goofy ones.  I shrugged.  I demurred.  I twittered and turned away.  I do not like my smile!

But here, for that person, and for Penny who has me on this campaign of posting selfies on Facebook to help me learn to love myself, is my true smile — crooked yellow teeth and all.  I tell myself each morning that the day in front of me is a new scene in the script of my life — and that I should enter, laughing. So, here it is, folks:  The uninhibited smile of Mary-Corinne Teresa Corley.  I hope you like it.