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Embarrassment
You are going to be embarassed at some point, just don’t let it change you
When I was 13, I experienced embarrassment for the first time that I could remember.
I had asked a girl to the 8th-grade dance. She was a next-door neighbor. We were friends but there weren’t any stronger feelings than that. I was happy to be going to the dance.
On the bus later that week, someone made a joke about her and she thought it was me. It wasn’t but she screamed out to me “I would never go to the dance with you!”. The entire bus hollered and laughed at me.
I felt smaller than an ant.
I then spent years avoiding situations where I could be embarrassed; well into adulthood. The sting of that embarrassment changed me. It changed me into a shell of who I was.
I stayed in that shell for years, even though I’ve been on many dates (some of which were good!), got married to my soulmate, had a child, and created a pretty good life.
Yet, I can go back to that school bus in an instant. It’s like it just happened.
This isn’t an article on how to deal with embarrassment. It’s more about not letting embarrassing situations change you as it changed me.
