Embarrassing Stories

The moments we wish we didn't remember

[embarrassingstory-blog]

Fun in Cabo

Staring at the clock impatiently, I counted down the seconds before the last class of the day ended. 4 seconds…3…2…1…the bell rang and I rushed out of school. It was finally Christmas break. We had three weeks off of school and I could not be more excited. I hurried back to my dorm, got my suitcase, and headed to the airport. As soon as I flew home, I was already packing up my bags again for our big family trip to Mexico. After a stressful morning of almost missing our flight and a painful six-hour plane ride, we landed in Cabo. The place we were staying at was unbelievable. Over the next few days, my sister and I spent our time laying out in the sun, eating lots of guacamole, and sipping smoothies at the swim-up bar in the pool. I even tried to learn a little Spanish with the help of my parents. Unfortunately, I wasn’t too successful. I started to practice the few words I knew by saying “hola” as I passed by anyone that worked at the resort. Suddenly, I was caught off guard. “¿estás disfrutando tu estadía?” one of them responded. I didn’t have a clue what to say. “uh sorry, I don't speak Spanish,” I embarrassingly replied and kept walking. I didn’t say anything in Spanish again for the rest of the trip to avoid another awkward misunderstanding. I was obviously overly confident in my speaking skills.

Sadly, the week flew by. All of the sudden it was our last day in Mexico. It was only a few hours before we had to leave, but we wanted to make the most out of it. We went snorkeling, ate more Mexican food, and decided to go to the pool one more time. On our way, my sister randomly ran into a guy she used to go to school with. They both went to greet each other when he missed a step on the stairs and slid on his knees the rest of the way down. Everyone around us was in shock. The worst part was that he tried to pretend that nothing had happened. He popped up from the ground and started talking to my sister again. Though, I could tell he was secretly embarrassed as much as he tried to hide it. Once their brief conversation ended, we continued our walk. I only made it a few feet before I started bursting into laughter about what had happened. My sister nudged me and told me that he was starting to notice, but I couldn’t hold back my smile. Just as I got myself together, I tripped over the edge of the sidewalk and fell down. Now, my sister was the one laughing. I guess that was karma.

After we went swimming, it was finally time to leave. We flew back home in shorts and flip-flops, just to find out that it had snowed while we were away. It was the perfect ending to our best and most hilarious vacation yet.

[embarrassingstory-blog]

Worst Date

It was a Saturday night and my sister was getting ready for a date. She had liked this guy for a while and I was almost more excited for her than she was. I helped her get ready and talked her through her nerves. Finally, she was ready. The door-bell rang and he was here. They quickly left to make their movie, and I eagerly waited for her to come back and tell me how it went. A few hours later, I heard the door open and I told her to spill. Her smile disappeared. Then she let out a big sigh and began the story.

She told me that everything was going great before they got to the theater. During the movie, she got up to go to the bathroom and accidentally went through the emergency exit. By the time she realized, the door was already locked shut. She was stuck in an alley and had no idea how to get back. When she eventually found the entrance to the theater, they wouldn’t let her back in without a ticket. So, she waited for her date to come out. Finally, the movie ended and he ran into her at the exit. She had a lot of explaining to do. Although he didn’t quite understand what happened, he still took her home. Lets just say it was an awkward drive back.

To this day, she claims it was the worst date she’s ever been on. After all, she was practically gone for all of it.

[embarrassingstory-blog]

Wardrobe Malfunction

The day started out just like any other Monday: I snoozed my alarm one too many times, I was half asleep during my first class, and I looked like a mess. Luckily I wasn't the only one. My goal was just to get through the school day with the help of my friends and go home. Unfortunately, everything didn’t go exactly as planned.

“Ring…” The high pitch bell startled me out of my daydream and I jumped out of my seat to head to my next class. It was only second period, but it felt like I had been at school for hours. I walked into my history class and sat next to my friend Sophie. She was telling me about her weekend when the teacher began his lesson. She tried to finish her story by whispering the rest. Big mistake. He immediately overheard us talking and put me on the spot. “Katie, can you repeat what I just said?,” he asked. My mind went blank. “um…” I stalled while I tried to remember, “I forget,” I admitted. Next, he asked me to write on the board for him. I stood up in front of the class of fifty students and wrote what he said. Then, disaster struck.

My pants got caught on the corner of the board and when I turned around to go back to my seat, they ripped. Everyone saw. I looked down to see a hole in the back of my leggings and my bright pink underwear. I couldn’t believe that this actually happened to me. It was like something out a nightmare. Thankfully my friend gave me her jacket to tie around my waist to cover it. But, that didn’t stop people from knowing what happened. Who knew white-boards could be so dangerous!

[embarrassingstory-blog]

My first Internship

It was late July and summer was coming to an end. I was sad to be going back to school soon, but I wanted to make the most out of the last few weeks of freedom I had left. We made plans to go on one last trip to California for an internship that I got working for IMDB. The company was holding an event for new movie and tv season premieres and my job was to help out wherever I could. I didn’t know what they would have me do as an intern, but I knew that I would be seeing some celebrities.

It was my first day of my internship and I felt my stomach drop as I walked up to the boat where they were having the event. I pushed passed a crowd of screaming fans waiting to see their favorite actors and made my way onto the boat. I was immediately lost and didn’t know where to go. Luckily, someone tapped my shoulder and told me “they’re waiting for you upstairs.” I walked up the steps to find everyone already in a meeting. I was late. I tried to sneak in and take a seat without interrupting, but they stopped to introduce me anyway. I was a nervous wreck. “Hi, I’m Katie” I said as I shook everyone’s hand. After my brief introduction, they went back to the meeting. They handed out a packet of all the cast members that were coming onto the boat to be interviewed that day. I immediately flipped through it in search of any stars that I knew. Pretty soon, I find one. Dylan O’Brien was going to be on the boat with me. I couldn’t wait.

Finally, the busy day of interviews began. I was in charge of bringing the stars to the deck of the boat to take photos, getting them waters, and writing down the time-stamps of any important moments in their interviews. It was a long day and I was starting to get exhausted by walking up and down the stairs. But then, I heard the fans outside start to scream. I looked down to see Dylan O’Brien coming up to the boat. I panicked. I rushed downstairs to show them to their interview, but when I approached him, he asked, “do you want a photo?” He thought I was a fan. I didn’t know how to respond and reluctantly declined, reminding myself to “act professional”. I was a little embarrassed, but brushed it off and explained that I was actually an intern. I started to bring him and his manager to the top of the boat, but suddenly disaster struck. I tripped on my way up the stairs. They helped me up and I tried to joke about it. But the truth is, I was mortified.

Despite this incident, the rest of the day went surprisingly well. I was proud of the work I did and I managed to stay on my feet after my one fall. Still, I will always remember the day I embarrassed myself in front of my celebrity crush.

[embarrassingstory-blog]

Wrong person, Wrong Car

“Let’s go girls!” my mom yelled from downstairs. My sister and I rushed down and out the door to get into my mom’s car. We were going shopping; the most fun and stressful thing to do with my family. We started on our trip to the mall, when we were suddenly delayed by the classic Seattle traffic. Cars were barely moving and we all started to get a bit of road rage. But, before we could do anything crazy, we finally made it downtown. It took us almost two hours. My mom was not happy about this and she was already ready to go home. So, we compromised to only stay one hour. Looking like Black Friday shoppers, we scrambled through Nordstrom to find cute clothes and to try things on before the time was up. An hour past and we were lost in the store. As we attempted to make our way to the exit, I thought I saw my mom waiting for us. Her back was turned but I walked right up to her anyways and started talking. “Katie what are you doing?” my sister whispered from behind me. I looked up and to my surprise, the women I was talking to was not my mom at all. I had no words. There was no way that I could play it off. I didn’t know what to do but to walk back to my sister in complete embarrassment. We both bursted into laughter and continued to look for my actual mom. When we eventually found her, we made the smart decision to yell “Anne!” and make sure she responded before we could embarrass ourselves again.

This was not the only time something like this happened. In fact, the story behind second time I mistook someone for my mom was much worse.  

It was a Friday and my last block of the day. I was eager to get out of school for the weekend and relieved by the sound of the bell finally ringing. I packed up my things and talked with my friends outside while I waited to get picked up. Then, I got a text from my mom: “running late, be there in 15 mins.” It started to rain so I decided to walk to a cafe nearby my school to get something to eat and waste a little time. While I was sitting in the cafe, I kept looking out the window for my mom’s car. I finally saw a familiar silver Audi park across the street and assumed it was her. I made a run for it. I was soaked by the time I opened the car door and jumped inside. I glanced to my left, expecting to greet my mom when I was caught off guard. I was in the wrong car. We both froze and looked at each other in confusion. I quickly got out of the car, yelling “sorry!” as I shut the door. When my mom finally came, I told her what happened. She thought it was hilarious, but I had a very different take on it. At least now I know, always look inside a car before you get in!

[embarrassingstory-blog]

Wipeout

“3…2…1…Happy new year!” everyone shouted as confetti shot up into the air. The wait was finally over. The night had been filled with hours of laughter and fun memories, but I was exhausted. As soon as everyone left, I jumped into my bed, sunk into the soft mattress, and squeezed my eyes shut. The house was finally quiet, but I couldn't fall asleep. I had pushed past the point of tiredness and now my mind was racing. I began to think. It had been a long year and I was ready for a fresh start. I had always been bad at keeping up with my resolutions, but I wanted this year to be different. I decided to make a new resolution to work out at least four times a week. I was excited to start a healthier lifestyle, but I had no idea what was about to come with it. I was a week into my resolution. Things had been going well and I had come up with a routine at the gym. I would first run on the treadmill, spend twenty minutes on the elliptical, go on the bike, and finish with some ab exercises. It was a short and easy workout, but it always made me feel good afterward nevertheless. I even started to look forward to coming to the gym; well, until one day.

It was an early Friday morning when I realized I had forgotten to work out all week. I panicked. Before I knew it, I had hopped out of my bed and was on my way to the gym. I was still half-asleep but I couldn’t give up now. I stepped on the treadmill and bumped up the speed. Suddenly, something caught my attention mid-way through my run. I glanced down at my feet to see my shoe untied. It swung back and forth with each step, but I had no time to waste to stop and tie it. Within seconds, I was on the ground. I flew off the screeching treadmill onto the cold gym floor where I laid in shock. “Are you okay sweetie?,” I heard a woman say as I opened my eyes to a crowd of concerned faces. I was speechless. I pulled myself up, wiped the dust off my clothes, and limped over to the locker room. I had reached a new level of clumsiness. I could feel the stares as I made my way through the gym and I could no longer hide my embarrassment. My face turned bright red.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, I caught a glimpse of the huge rip in my shorts in the mirror. I quickly tried to cover it with my hands and managed to sneak out without too many people noticing. Unfortunately, the walk to my car was a different story. I had parked a block away and had to hold my shorts together as I crossed the street in front of a line of cars. I was completely mortified.

I ended up breaking my resolution when I avoided the gym for weeks after. It took me a while to overcome my new fear of treadmills, but it gave me a good story to tell my friends. Plus, I learned a valuable lesson to always tie my shoes.

[embarrassingstory-blog]

Work Disaster

For once, it was a beautiful, sunny day in Seattle and officially the start of summer. Today was my first day working at my local beach and tennis club and I was extremely nervous. I had never had a job before so I was determined to impress them; I ended up doing the opposite.

I woke up late as usual and rushed out of my house without thinking about what I needed to bring with me. I forgot just about everything. I quickly got to the club in time and ran past the entrance, when I was stopped by the sound of someone yelling. I spun around and froze at the sight of the angry man facing me. I forgot to check in at the front desk, making it look like I was sneaking in. To make matters more embarrassing, my boss had to come and let me in.

Then, I walked over to the tennis courts to teach my first lesson. I was greeted by a group of hyper kids holding rackets twice their size. My immediate thought was, “this is going to be one long day.” And I was right. I reached for my racket just to discover my bag was empty. I had left it at home! I panicked. There I was, standing in front of all these kids, with nothing to play tennis with. Well, except an extra racket that one of the kids had. It was the tiniest racket to ever exist and I had no choice but to use it for the rest of the lesson. Somehow I managed to improvise and make it through the practice as everyone stared. Good thing they were light hitters!

Unfortunately, my day did not end there. I was also in charge of taking food and drink orders from people at the beach and the pool. I thought that things were finally turning around as I felt like I was getting the hang of my job. But then, one order changed everything. I overestimated my waitressing skills by juggling two smoothies, two trays of food, and one milkshake. One of the trays slowly slid off of my arm on my way to the pool and I soon realized my mistake. Disaster struck, but it was too late to turn back around. Everything else fell along with the tray and I was splattered with all of it from head to toe. All eyes were on me. I turned bright red and ran to go clean off. The worst part was I had to go back out, pick it all up, and work for two more hours after that.

As you can probably guess, the next couple of weeks I spent working there weren’t easy. I eventually adjusted to the job and the fast pace environment, but I could never forget the embarrassment of my first day. I saw for myself that I wasn’t the only one to make that mistake and I can laugh about my experience now. I’m sure I will have plenty more humiliating moments at work to come.

[embarrassingstory-blog]

Most Embarrassing Week at School

A couple years ago, I managed to embarrass myself almost every day over the course of a week. I remember this as one of the worst weeks I had ever had, while all my friends thought it was one of the funniest. My week began like any other, I woke up to the horrible sound of my alarm and forced myself to roll out of bed after hitting snooze too many times. Then, I slowly got ready and rushed to school. When I got there, I realized I was seconds away from being late and started to book it to my class. On my way, I skipped a step going down the stairs and hit the floor. I shook it off, thinking that nobody had seen, just to look up and see an opened door and a class full of students staring at me. My face turned bright red and I rushed to the bathroom to fix myself up. After I recovered, I walked to class and made sure to avoid the stairs. Now I was 15 minutes late and knew I would interrupt the class when I came in; but what happened next was so much worse.

Without paying too much attention, I walked into the classroom and took a seat. Suddenly, everyone started to laugh and I had no idea why. I looked around confused until I realized that it wasn't my class. Mortified, I jumped up from my seat and got out as quickly as I could. To my surprise, I survived the rest of the day without doing anything too embarrassing again. I figured that it was just a bad day and the next one would be better; but boy was I was wrong.

The next morning, I woke up early to make sure I wouldn't be late for school again. I checked my schedule this time and was feeling good about the day. I got to campus with time to spare and wanted to get a drink before heading to class. Naturally, I made the mistake of getting a bright red drink and you can probably guess what happened next. I ended up bumping into someone in the hallway and it spilled all over myself. Luckily, I had a change of clothes in the locker-room, but the walk there was already embarrassing enough. As you can tell, I was having a great start to the day and couldn't wait to see what would happen over the next 6 hours I had left of school.

Not much later, I was getting ready for my fitness class and went to the bathroom to put my hair up. When I opened the doors, I immediately knew something was different. I had gone into the boys bathroom by accident and I was not alone in there. I turned around and ran out faster than I had ever run before. No matter how much I tried to pretend it didn't happen, my friends constantly joked about it to remind me.

There are a lot more moments that week worth sharing, but you'll have to wait for future posts to read about them!

[embarrassingstory-blog]

Trip to the Dentist

It was finally the day I had dreaded for weeks, my yearly dental checkup. I walked into the doors of the office and was immediately greeted by the sounds of drilling. After an hour of being asked questions and struggling to respond while they poked at my teeth, I thought it was finally over; I was wrong. Instead, they had found a cavity that needed to be filled, which meant I had to come back. This is where the story started. When I arrived the next day for my appointment, I was told that I would be given laughing gas for the procedure. Not knowing what it was, I had no worries. The next thing I remember, I was awake and feeling great. Still out of it, I stumbled to the car and we began to drive to my school to pick up something I had left. When we got there, my mom got out to go inside and told me to wait for her in the car. Of course, I did not listen and decided it would be a good time to visit my friends in class. I wandered around campus, tripping every 5 steps, until I saw a familiar classroom. I headed straight for it and reached for the door just as my mom stopped me and guided me back to the car. She might have saved me from humiliating myself at school, but my embarrassment didn't end there. On the way home, we decided to stop at a sandwich shop, and this time, my mom decided to lock the car door. I was confused about why I couldn't go with and unlocked the door from the inside, setting off the alarm when I stepped out. This caused everyone to stare as I crawled up the stairs to the restaurant and walked straight into the window that I mistook for the door. I fell down as soon as I hit it, unaware of what had just happened. My mom was mortified and ran out to help me up and take me inside. When I walked in, everyone was laughing at me, but in my mind, I had no clue what they were so happy about. As we ate, I tried to speak to the people sitting at every table, while going on about something that made no sense. My mom, being more embarrassed than I was, was apologizing left and right and trying to explain why I was acting that way. After we finished, we finally went home and the laughing gas wore off a few hours later. I had no memory of what had happened, but my parents quickly informed me about my little adventure and they still make fun of it to this day. Now, I am reminded of this story every time I go to the dentist and can't help but smile. Thankfully, I haven't been given laughing gas since, but I expect to hear about a part two of this story when I get my wisdom teeth out soon.

[embarrassingstory-blog]

Finding Humor in Embarrassment

Even though many of us don't like to admit it, we all have our embarrassing moments, some more than others. But, those few minutes that we experience of complete horrification are all worth being able to joke about the story later. Looking back on these times, like the decision to wear a dress on the only windy day of the whole the year or falling down a flight of stairs in front of what felt like the whole school, never fails to get a laugh. Whether you're someone who tries to block out these not so fond memories or you're someone that has no shame in making fun of yourself, we all learn from embarrassment. In my opinion, embarrassing ourselves is actually a good thing. Although embarrassment is commonly perceived as negative, it has a lot of positive outcomes. It suggests that you are trying to fit into social norms like everyone else which can make you more approachable. It also prevents us from repeating the same mistakes that put us in an uncomfortable situation. To spread this message, I will be sharing some of my personal embarrassing stories as well as others. Being a clumsy person, I have a long list of these. While one purpose of these stories is for amusement, the other is to be relatable to the people that read them. This is to show that no matter how perfect someone seems, we are all human and have more similar experiences than one might think. By knowing that you're not the only one that humiliates themselves from time to time, you shouldn't be afraid of embarrassment. Instead, go towards it by taking risks, by avoiding overthinking, and by laughing at your mistakes along the way. Plus, you'll have a lot of good stories to tell afterwards.