The art of Self Promotion: ugly or creative?

I am here surrounded by people who are 'the cream of the crop'. They are the success stories of their families, the 4.0 GPAs and the honours students. But I sit here asking myself, is this really true? It is not because they are incompetent, far from it. I am intimdated by their efficiency, their aptitude and their clear genius. Or is it rather that I am intimidated by their uninhibited willingness to share this with me? Surely someone who is so forthcoming in tellng me how 'brilliant' they are, how well travelled, experienced and wise they are must be certain of their ability?

The concept of self-promotion is not something I come across everyday, and yet here it seems to be a necessity. I wonder if it is my English reserve that makes me think it is such an unattractive thing to have to 'blow your own trumpet' or if it genuinely is ugly. It's not as if the English are not proud beings, I realise that I probably assume I am brilliant, wise and well-travelled and that rather than modesty it is an assumption that everyone clearly knows this that causes me to refrain from comment.
I know it is also my fear that if I raise expectations then I am bound to disappoint, where if I keep quiet I can only delight people with my 'understated' brilliance! And thus I start to question if my way is better after all.

I have to admit it is not simply that I consider self-promtion to be so ugly that I am irritated by this prevalent character trait. Honesty compels me to acknowledge that what really gets my goat is that people- not as brilliant as me - are portrayed as such.

I recently went to a conference, and out of not only English reserve but also a sense of inadequacy I fear I misrepresented myself. I implied a level of ignorance about Human Rights and the rest of the world which wasn't fair to myself. I then spent the rest of the week answering the inquiry of whether coming to the USA was my first time out of England. I know I am not the most global citizen, but my parents live in Burundi and my sister lives in Afghanistan, so I do have some sense of what it is to be 'overseas'. I shot myself in the foot and spent the rest of week feeling as if I had been labelled 'the silly white colonialist who has a good heart'.

So I ask myself, should I buy into this self-promotion game? Should I vocalise my skills and be a walking talking resume, where any experience is maximised and exaggerated? It seems to be an important feature to the climbing the career ladder, and I can see why.

I still think its ugly though.