I very often set my heart on things – and if they don’t happen, I’m not great at dealing with disappointment.
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's The Q&A has retained this Proust-derived prompt from at least 2007 through 2026, and ABC independently put it to the Obamas in 2011.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I can’t say no. I am a people-pleaser, and it means that I burn myself out because I take on too much.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 August 2022 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 243 →The tendency to withdraw into myself.
Absentmindedness.
My competitive side, the one that keeps score.
More from Vick Hope
View profile →As someone who had a laugh.
I don’t like it when people manipulate your words, which sometimes happens in the tabloids.
My younger self. I told myself so often that I was not good enough, that I was not smart enough, that I was not interesting enough, that I was boring and ugly. I wasn’t kind to my body, and I did and said things to myself that I would never do or say to a friend.
When I was growing up, I thought quicksand was going to be a much bigger fear to contend with on a day‑to-day basis. It hasn’t proved to be a bother yet, but there’s still time.
J-Lo, a foreign correspondent and, at uni, I assumed that someone would tap me on the shoulder and ask me to be in MI6, but it never happened.
This sounds so silly, but I cry with happiness all the time. I cry when my flowers open!
More on identity & self
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Adam Kay, Adam Lambert, Adele Parks, Adrian Dunbar, Al Franken, Alex Hassell
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- All identity & self questions
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