Wearing Tzitzis for the first time

Probably about 3 summers ago, I had purchased a set of tzitzis/talit katan.  I knew that it was a mitzvah to wear them and sort of on a venture, I decided to make an online purchase.  I don't think that at that time I ever considered that I might wear them outside of the house.  I did this as at the time, I felt a need to consider learning more about my own religious faith.
One day, on a whim, and maybe to show myself it could be done, I wore the tallis katan under my shirt and went to a park where there was a restaurant tasting going on.  I have never been so self conscious in my days as I was when I did that.  It forced me to abandon my own insecurities and do what I knew many other Jewish people regularly did in public.  I wore the tzitzis.  Untucked (though I may have felt the need to tuck them at one point).   I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb.  I happened upon another Jewish person at the event.  His background was that he was a conservative Jew in town.  I was formerly from a reform background.   You get a sense from conservative Jews that you are less religious than they are when you are a reform Jew.  That had always been my experiences.  So here I was, a Jew from a reform background wearing tzitzis in front of another non orthodox but "conservative" Jew.   It felt quite stimulating.   I was still selfcounscious and wondered if I had caught the other persons eye.  Did it matter?  Probably not. I was not trying to make a statement.  I just wanted an experience.  
I was trying to be inconspicuous at this time.  I even discovered later that day that I could pocket the tzitzi strings and I thought, wow, I could get away with wearing these and tucking them into either my pants or easier, just pocketing the strings.  I might be able to fulfill a mitzvah that I really seemed to feel was in fact really what a Jewish person was supposed to do (wear tzitzis).   I rationalized it.  I did not immediate begin wearing tzitzis.  It was an experiment.   It probably took several more months before I decided to begin wearing them even once in a while.   I will report that I do not feel my entire spirit is present in their absence today.