They ridicule Reverend Thomas together, when everyone else seems to respect him, and Bailey allows her to laugh at the ridiculous aspects of church, which everyone else takes deadly seriously. Angelou's ability to find humor in even the most serious of matters is another reason why she has become a self-actualized person.
One of the most important traits of self-actualization that Maya Angelou possesses is her ability to be completely realistic. The first line in her book is, "I didn't come to stay." She references this line throughout the book. In chapter 10 she goes on to say, "Moving from the house where the family was centered meant absolutely nothing to me. It was simply a small pattern in the grand design of our lives. If other children didn't move so much, it just went to show that our lives were fated to be different from everyone else's in the world." She is able to look at a situation for what it is and not accept it as defeat, just as reality. .
Another example of Angelou's realism occurs in chapter 13. She states, "The saying that people who have nothing to do become busybodies is not the only truth. Excitement is drug, and people whose lives are filled with violence are always wondering where the next 'fix' is coming from." This was important for her to realize at a young age because she was surrounded by violence throughout all her childhood and it is very easy for someone, especially at such a transitioning age, to become fixed on that sort of lifestyle. Instead she coped with reality by reading and finding comfort in her books. Though she feels very alone in St. Louis, Maya learns to pretend that the books she reads are her real life. Instead of a poor, unwanted ugly girl, she is a beautiful princess who has simply been mistaken for a maid. She believes desperately in the morals of the stories, and is sometimes able to forget her life for a moment.