Most Embarassing Moments

So I was doing some thinking on some possible blog topics for the future when I started remembering some embarrassing moments from my past. I guess the motivation for this subject came up while watching some American Idol contestants discuss their most embarrassing moments. I was literally in bed last night about to go to sleep when several entered my mind. So quickly, I grabbed a piece of paper and started writing down some events that were quite embarrassing for me. None of them are really all that recent; in fact, I'm having a hard time remembering anything that was all that embarrassing in the last few years. But the following five are moments that I'll probably remember for a long time to come and which now I can laugh about. At the time, they weren't very funny at all!

Okay, the first moment happened when I was in junior high or high school (I'm having difficulty actually remember WHEN this happened); I'm thinking eighth or ninth grade. I was on the junior varsity basketball team and I was actually in the game as opposed to sitting on the bench where the majority of time I was. We were at a visiting school that didn't have a good basketball team - which explains why I was in the game. We had a fairly comfortable lead so I got the opportunity to play in the game. Someone passed the ball to me and I was open. I believe I was just beyond the three point line which was well within my range. So I aim and shoot towards the basket. The only thing was, I overshot and the ball ended up going above the backboard and into the supports that held the backboard up. In fact, the basketball bounced around like a pinball for a bit in the supports before finally reaching the floor. I guess you could say I was pretty excited to shoot the ball and my adrenalin was pumping which led me overshoot the ball. I remember hearing the visiting crowd laughing and my coach giving me a grinning look back at the huddle. All I wanted to do after that shot was dig a hole in the floor and cover myself up in embarrassment. I would rank this one as being the number one most embarrassing moment for me because it was in front of a crowd of people (thankfully not on home court, though) and I felt really small after that.

The next embarrassing moment goes all the way back to when I was in kindergarten class. Probably the reason why I still remember this one is because this moment was taped by my father and is part of our home movie collection. So every now and again, I'm able to watch this back and laugh at myself. But honestly, it's not that bad of a moment; certainly in comparison to the first one. It was kindergarten graduation and my class was performing all sorts of cutesy little skits and songs to our parents who sat proudly in the audience. I'd have to look back at the tape because I honestly cannot remember what this particular skit was about. But there were three of us lined up together voicing this one skit. Essentially it went, "the mother, the father, and the baby..." something or other. This one girl was the "mother" I guess, and I was the father. Like I said, the exact details are so foggy; I just remember the true moment that was embarrasing. Prior to this we were saying some lines and then came the most important part of the skit; our solos, if you will. This girl was supposed to say "the mother," to start things off. Well, she wasn't saying anything. It was as if she had forgotten to say her line and didn't know that's where she was supposed to come in. So I guess I took the liberty to help her out and I blurted "the moth..." and then cut myself off. I think I didn't actually mean to say it and it more or less just came out. Anyways, it got her to say her line and I was able to say mine and the skit was completed afterall. But at the conclusion, the audience filled with parents chuckled aloud. So I guess I find it a little embarrassing to this day, but it was so long ago, all I can do is laugh about it now.

The next embarrassing moment was another that occured many years ago; probably when I was about seven or eight. It was the summertime and I was out fishing with my great uncle (who I absolutely adored) and cousin. My dad showed up later that day to record some of my fishing to be included on video, which is probably why I am able to remember this one just as I did with the kindergarten moment. So I was having a ball that day catching numerous fish. They weren't very big but the most exciting part about the experience is catching all of those fish and truly having a successful day. Well the one part that was caught on camera was of me absolutely refusing to take the fish off my hook after it had been retrieved out of the water. I guess it was too slimy and wiggled way too much for me to take it off, so the whole time, my great uncle had to take all the fish off my line. Heck, I couldn't even put the worm on my hook! My dad gave me a bit of a hard time for not having the guts to take the fish off the hook (my words, not his) which is understandable. I have gone fishing since and have no difficulties taking fish off the line, let alone putting the worm on the hook! Still, it's one of those situations I'll never forget, especially when it's on tape for many generations of my family to enjoy.

Next up is probably the most recent of embarrassing moments I could think of. I was either in my last or second to last year of college and it was springtime. I can't remember the exact details regarding the event, but I believe I had just gotten out of my last class of the day and decided to take a walk through one of the buildings on campus that housed the library. I was so focused on a subject in my head that I didn't even realise I was about to walk into one of the main entryway's windows and not the door itself. I think I was focused on picking up a copy of the university's student newspaper ... no, I remember now. A group of girls were sitting in the lobby of the building in a circular fashion. I was rather curious why they were seated there instead of sitting inside the library itself. Well, maybe they needed a "loud" place to gather. So as I turned the corner and made my way towards the door, I was looking at them instead of remembering where the actual door was. The next thing I remember is hitting my head on the glass and making a rather large thud against the window pane. Dazed and confused, I quickly gained my composure and walked briskly away from the scene and instead walked around the building instead of through it. It's one of those situations that you can't contemplate yourself doing but when you actually experience it yourself, it's pretty frickin' embarrassing, especially with people around! But now that I am in my safe confines behind my computer, I can actually laugh about it now.

The last of the embarrassing moments is one that just popped into my head and it's not for me individually but one for the whole sixth grade class at the time. It was our annual spring-sing event so we were singing a song that, I guess, was supposed to bring spring-like thoughts to those in the audience. Well we ended up singing the Tom Petty song "Mary Jane's Last Dance," which is actually a pretty odd song choice. I guess it was popular at the time and we as a class wanted to choose something that was edgy and different than the pleasant, flowery songs that other classes had chosen. We rehearsed many different times but apparently it wasn't nearly enough. We started singing the song and it started off pretty good. But somewhere along the line we got off track and weren't singing along to the beat of the music and the lyrics got majorly flipped around. It honestly seemed like one part of the group was singing a completely different part of the song than the other and that continued right on through to the end. I honestly believe our music teacher was flabbergasted at how bad it was, considering that we had done so well prior and sounded really good. I remember him saying some comment to the audience, but I no longer can recall what he said. Something along the lines of "well, that was interesting." Not that I can blame him. But walking off the stage, I remember feeling pretty angry and lost at what had gone wrong. I couldn't believe how we couldn't keep to the beat of the song and strayed off so badly - maybe bad direction from the music teacher? I'll never truly know, but it's one of those moments that leaves me puzzled to this day.

So there you have it; my listing of top embarrassing moments that I can currently remember to this day. I'm sure there are others that I'll remember eventually and new ones that will pop up. Some may even be so bad that I can add them here!