High school and college (and the rest of your life) are full of embarrassing moments. It’s inevitable and it’s frustrating.
It happens to all of us. You drop your lunch tray in the cafeteria, slip on the ice outside your school building, miss a soccer goal in the big game, or maybe you get caught in some unfortunate social drama… or worse.
Next time you’re caught blushing with embarrassment, try these tips for getting past it and moving on:
Keep your head up
Rather than turning and ducking into a dark corner, try the opposite. Stand tall and remember that you aren’t the first person to go through whatever the embarrassing situation is.
Laugh it off
The best thing you can do is smile and laugh at yourself. You’ll show anyone watching that it was no big deal and that you can brush off the little things.
Approach and apologize
If you’re embarrassed because you’ve offended someone or acted in a less-than-admirable way, you can still redeem yourself. It’s tempting to hide, but approaching the situation and apologizing for your wrongdoing feels much better and allows you to move past it.
Do you have any tips for handling embarrassment to add to the list?
September 15, 2011 at 9:18 pm
I have a few stories of embarrassment but will share one.
I was in Chemistry class and we were doing seat work that had to be turned in before leaving for the day. While diligently working, ‘Mother Nature’ came to visit. I made haste to the lavatory but sure enough, there was a visible stain on the back of my dress. I tried to do damage control with wet paper towels but this only spread the stain making it MORE noticeable. Thinking furiously, I splashed water on my front (perhaps in my panic thinking I could make it look as though the plumbing had exploded). Even I didn’t buy it, so I took the dress off and soaked it in the sink. It worked! The whole dress was one color again. I tried to wring as much liquid from my clothing as possible before donning it yet again and making my way back to class. I settled in to the task of finishing my work, valiantly ignoring the sideways glances of my class mates as the drips began to form a sizable puddle below my seat. I finished in record time, and took the papers to my professor. He did not comment, but I specifically remember him shaking his head as he took my papers.
I can laugh about this now, but mostly because I wondered at the explanations people would come to. There is another story involving a treadmill at the campus gym.. but I guarantee it isn’t what you think .
September 16, 2011 at 3:55 pm
While reading this, I was honestly laughing, and then had to read it to someone else. You are a problem-solver at heart! I’m wondering about the treadmill story… I have a few ideas…
September 17, 2011 at 1:31 am
I kept a bag in my car so that I could visit the gym in between classes. It had been a few weeks since I worked out and I was determined to be good that day. I changed in the locker room, only to discover that my Bath and Body gel had leaked and my white canvas slip-ons were now pink. I rinsed them and wrung them, deciding not to back out. I noticed that I left wet foot prints on the wood floors as I made my way to the treadmill, but hoped that no one else would. I started my walk. I was the only girl there that day- but I am good at focusing forward and blocking things like that out. I did well for about 15 minutes, in fact- but soon could not deny that I was the object of male attention. I am pretty self confident, but I began to feel shy and ducked my head…looking at my feet. My shoes had foamed up to unbelievably sized bubbles on top of bubbles. I looked like some sort of clown. With as much dignity as I could muster, my bubble feet and I returned to the locker room and called it a day. Bet you thought I lost control of my speed and pantingly begged my treadmill neighbor to stop the machine for me…No. That was another time.
September 19, 2011 at 3:14 pm
That was JUST the story I needed to start off my Monday. Hahah… Bubbles at the gym, bet none of the guys watching you thought they’d see that!