The most embarrassing moment - Essay Example

OOOPS!! Embarrassment. “Feelings of self-consciousness, shame or humiliation” (Merriam-Webster’s). No one can really escape it, at one point or another, something will happen that will be burnt and etched into your memory. An experience that will probably be hard for onlookers to forget. I’ve had my fair share of embarrassment, let me tell you. However, one experience remains in my mind. I’ve never had a thing for the stage. Ever since I can remember, I’ve tried to shy away from situations where I would have to be in front of a group of people.

When I was younger, people would tell me, if you get scared of all those people looking at you, just imagine them in their underwear. Yea, that never worked for me. When I was about 13, some friends of mine thought it would be cool to sing a song for our school’s talent show. I’m not a great singer, so I quickly dismissed the idea, telling them that they could perform it if they wanted, but to exclude me. They begged and pleaded but I stood firm. They continued begging, and weirdly, I finally agreed.

I agreed on the conditions that I would only be singing backup and nobody would have to hear my voice. They accepted. After a few weeks of practice, it was time for the show. We were all ready. As act after act went up and performed, I started feeling more and more nervous. I looked over at my friends expecting some encouragement, but from the look of their faces, they might have needed it more than me. I asked them if it was too late to back out, they said yes. The act before us went up and were about to finish.

I looked down at my hands and realized I was shaking and sweating. Finally they called our name and we got up. My two friends went out first and I was following behind. As we got on the stage, I looked out to the audience. The place was packed! The gym looked a lot bigger than normal. It seemed like everyone was there. I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I wasn’t looking where I was going. I thought I had climbed up all the steps… You can imagine what happened next. All I could remember was feeling my legs trip over something and next thing I could feel was the dirty floor on my face.

The gym went silent. Usually this wouldn’t really matter if we were all adults or at least even college students. I’m talking middle school. Just kill me right now…just kill me right now, I thought. I knew that I couldn’t continue singing with the humiliation I felt so I just turned back, walked out of the gym and went home. I really can’t remember what people said to me after, only that people looked at me funny, like they pitied me or were trying to hide their laughter. Either way, I didn’t want to know.

When you see embarrassing things happen to people, you think, that won’t happen to me. It can’t happen to me. But let me tell you something, it can, and it just might. And guess what, there’s no getting ready or planning ahead. At that point, I thought I’d never live it down, but I did. You eventually get over it. And when you decide to laugh with everyone and let it go, that’s when you realize that all these moments that we experience, good or bad, exhilarating or embarrassing, are all a part of what makes life exciting.

Reference: Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster Incorporated, Massachussetts, 2007.