Thursday, January 8, 2009

Embarrassing Moments

Embarrassing moments. We've all had them. Your face turns red, some people may laugh, you feel like you want to dig a hole, lay in it, and never come out. Here's just one example of the hundreds of embarrassing moments I've had.
It was the second week of 8th grade. I was just getting to know the people in my Social Studies class. Especially the girl next to me, Beatrice. Beatrice had dropped some papers on the ground next to me, so I kindly bent over to help her pick them up. Now, our desks have a bar on the left side that goes from the back of the chair to the desk. I'm a rather short person, so as I'm stretching as far as I can to get that paper, my feet are suddenly jerked upward and my whole desk flips sideways. The room is completely silent and everyone is staring at me. I can feel my face flushing and my heart beating faster. My teacher came over and kindly offered to help me put my desk back up. Once I was sitting down, conversation eventually picked up again. I had quite a few of the nicer girls in my class asking me if I was okay. I replied with a curt nod and a small smile; I can be pretty shy. Beatrice was in my next class too. I sat right behind her. She looked back at me and said something that would change my view of embarrassing moments for all eternity:

"Hey, you don't have to be embarrassed or anything about flipping the desk. It happens to everybody."

At that second, I had an epiphany. As embarrassing and horrific as the moment was for you, nobody else really cares. Sure they'll all talk about it that day, but they'll forget it in a week. So don't beat yourself up when something embarrassing happens and you're the victim. Everyone will forget. You'll look back on it later and think that it was just a hilarious happening.

And the One that really matters, doesn't care if you fall out of your desk every once in a while.

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