Embarrassment is an extremely normal human emotion. When something embarrassing happens to you, people’s first reactions are the blushing of their face, the clamminess of their hands, fidgeting or stuttering when they speak, or even just fleeing from the scene. Studies have found that embarrassment often happens because it’s a reaction to social feedback. We feel emotions like awkwardness, self-guilt, and regret so that we don’t make the same mistake that we just made. Other studies have shown that some people’s reaction to embarrassment is to laugh and try to turn the situation into a funny moment. 

In the world that we live in today, people tend to take everything to heart. Sometimes the time we get to take a step back and worry less is what we really need to cherish. These stories that you are about to read are only a few in billions upon billions of embarrassing things that occur in students’ lives all across the world.

The students that I have interviewed about embarrassing stories are from Potosi High School grade levels. I asked two students from each grade. Most of the stories were easy for these students to remember. I want you to know that it is okay to have those embarrassing stories. I’m sure that everyone in the world has some kind of embarrassing moment that has happened to them. Like I said before, embarrassment is a natural occurring thing in human life.

Freshman Elizabeth Pratt

 I asked Elizabeth what embarrassing story about herself she was comfortable with sharing. After about two seconds she knew exactly what story she wanted to tell me. She said, “This one time Mr. Singer was there and I played this note really loud and I squeaked and my face turned red and everyone laughed.” As a band kid myself, I totally understand how awkward and embarrassing it is to be the only sound when it’s quiet, but instead of Elizabeth showing that she was embarrassed, she found it funny and laughed with her friends. She chose to have a good time with it instead of dwelling on a little mistake that wouldn’t matter in the long game. 

Freshman Maya Porter

Maya said, “One time my mom took me to Walmart to go see Santa and whenever I was sitting on his lap I pulled off his beard.” I chose to include this story honestly because I thought it was good. Usually you hear this kind of thing happening in a movie but this actually happened in Maya’s life. When she told me this story all she could do was laugh.

Sophomore Ashlynn Estes

Ashlynn said, “My most embarrassing moment is from this year when I was going up the stairs and I tripped, walking up the stairs not walking down the stairs.” This story is also something you don’t usually hear about. Most people talk about tripping down the stairs. It’s just the most common thing, but Ashlynn’s story is different from others. She tripped walking up the stairs. It’s like gravity rejected her movement for a second. There was also a lot of laughter when me and Ashlynn talked about this story.

Sophomore Austin Turnbough

 Austin said, “My most embarrassing moment was one time in 3rd grade I got up to ask the teacher if I could go to the bathroom, while I was walking across the room to the door I wet my pants. To this day I still haven’t actually told anyone. I also have not wet my pants since.” This story was just really interesting to hear about. It brought up some laughter and just made the mood of the conversation really nice.

Junior Haydin Eckhoff

This story is one you don’t hear very often. He said, “So my most embarrassing moment was when I went to the Desloge pool for summer school on a trip and I dived off the low end, and as soon as I hit the water my trunks came clean off. It was probably the weirdest experience but also the most embarrassing. Nobody saw it but it was pretty rad.” Haydin’s story is a strange one. Not everyday do you hear about someone losing their trunks but Haydin chooses to laugh along with people when he talks about this happening to him. 

Junior Olivia Manning

Her story is about a trip with her family. She told me about when her family went camping and it had rained really bad that day. So Olivia and her friends decided to go swim in this ditch that was full of muddy water. When her grandparents found out, they all got in a lot of trouble. This story is more embarrassing to Olivia than it is to anyone else.

Senior Jasmine Caruthers

She said, “My embarrassing story is when we were at a football game and the marching band was performing their show. I am a drum major so I stand on one of the metal drum major stands and while I was conducting, I stepped out for one of my queues and almost fell off of the five foot stand in front of everyone at the football game.” I included this story because it seems relatable. I know that if this happened to me, I would have felt pretty embarrassed myself but Jasmine chooses to laugh about it in a fun way instead of keeping herself down about it.

Senior Alan Baltzell

Alan’s story is a little different than the others. When I asked him what his most embarrassing story was he didn’t really know. So we talked for a little bit and then this discussion came up. Alan said, “When I was in first grade my parents didn’t know that I was in need of glasses. So when it came to going into second grade, I got held back for being blind. This wasn’t an embarrassing moment though. That was when I announced to the whole class that I failed first grade and when the teacher repeated that fact everyone laughed at me for it. It wasn’t the most embarrassing thing but people did laugh at me for failing.” I chose to include this story because of the students that laughed at Alan for failing. Instead of turning red and feeling embarrassed, Alan decided to turn the situation around and laugh and have a good time with it. He can’t control the past but he can control what he chooses to do in the future.

Embarrassment is a normal occurring action or feeling in a human’s life. You shouldn’t be ashamed of something that you’ve found embarrassing or something that others have laughed at you for. You are not the only witness or perpetrator of embarrassment. As Brene Brown once said, “What we don’t need in the midst of struggle is shame for being human.” Brene Brown is a “Storyteller” in Houston, Texas. She is mostly known for her research on human vulnerability, shame, leadership, and more famously for her TED talks. To learn more about Brene Brown’s TED talks, visit this link. https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_the_power_of_vulnerability?language=en

 Some of the most memorable and authentic moments are developed outside of school. Don’t be afraid of your embarrassing stories, embrace them. They are the parts of us that truly show who we are.