Complete Embarrassment- Jen Immel

Have you’ve ever laughed at someone who tripped? Jerk-ish, I know, but everyone has done it. Maybe not laugh out loud, but the occasional smile and maybe thought that it was funny. Embarrassment. I know that when I trip over myself, or something as small as a pebble, I’m embarrassed. But why? Why should I be ashamed of my faults?

One time I was coming early to school for a voice lesson –yeah, I’m kind of a music nerd except for the fact that I can’t sing worth crap- and I was wearing flats, so it wasn’t like I was wearing heels and tripped because I’m unbalanced and awkward. No. I was in flats and walking up some stairs into the high school when all of the sudden I over compensate a stupid ten inch stair and trip up the stairs. Ha ha ha. Yeah not so funny. But you’re probably thinking up the stairs? How does someone manage that? Well, I managed; luckily it was early enough so that no one saw my stupidity. I’m thinking Thank God no one saw that! Wrong. So I’m getting up to pick up the scattered remains from my purse when out of the blue I hear a mom say “It’s OK. No one saw anything.”-emphasizing on the “anything” as if she was trying to make me feel better. I twist around and… well there’s Sam’s mom with Sam swinging open the front door. I just sit there as if shocked by a poisonous animal called Embarrassment. “Yep. That’s me. It’s kind of embarrassing!” Still sitting I tap my feet on the steps wishing things would be over, when the dreaded follow up question is asked. “What happened?” What happened? Did you not just see me eat the stairs with my face? Utterly self-conscious I say “Um…I just tripped up the stairs,” awkward laugh following, “yeah well see you later.” Really thinking oh please don’t let me see him later. I grab my stuff and bolt it. That was probably the most awkward/ embarrassing ten seconds of my life so far.

I open the door and see a women frozen in the stop-what-I’m-doing-and-lean-back-to-see-what-just-happened position, and when I smile she de-freezes and keeps on walking- Yup, she saw me. I think ‘well at least things can’t get any worse’- which is probably the most ironic saying in the universe because the dreaded is bound to happen once the person says it. “Oh, hey there Jenny, um…do you need help?” Great, even a teacher noticed my mishap. “No, I’m just going to my voice lesson.” I’m thinking ‘just avoid the topic.’ I get to my lesson and everything returns to normal.
Yet, I start thinking why do people get embarrassed so easily? Why do we all have to seem flawless? I have my many flaws and, trust me, there are more to come, but why are people afraid to be judged- everyone judges in one way or another. Why must we be something we are not? Like wearing make-up for example. I hate it but I know that if I go to school with the whole roll-out-of-bed-and-I-should-put-something-appealing-on look I would become the Disease of the Day- don’t look it might be contagious.
I personally like the comfortable look but thanks to the media the ‘comfortable look’ went out once waspy and soccer mom kicked in. Why do we wear and dress up for others to not be embarrassed. I’ll tell you, hormones. No one like them, but everyone is stuck with them, and embarrassment just seems to make us all think that we need to impress everyone else. And what is worse is that we have all come to think that embarrassment is funny. I’m not saying that I don’t laugh at people’s stupid faults- in fact; I even laugh out loud at my own. I don’t know, maybe we should go for the ‘comfortable look’ every once in a while just to shake things up, and maybe get over our embarrassments by doing the embarrassing.