To be honest I've been thinking about this post for a while and I realized that I'm a shameless person which is why I don't get embarrassed easily. Like I'm shy, so I'm scared of doing a social faux-pas or making myself look stupid, but it takes a lot to embarrass me. That's not to say that I don't get embarrass, but I don't reminisce on it which I think is a point that proves that you're really embarrassed or not. One of the biggest moments of me being "embarrassed" is when I did a presentation in the 11th grade, and I was presenting on the queen, Frida Kahlo. I practiced and practiced and practiced again because I wanted to share with everyone the elusive wonders of Frida. I practiced twenty times in class counting down my turn to present. When it was my time my mind went blank, my hands started sweating, my heart was beating through my chest (I think you could literally see it pumping through my shirt) and everyone's eyes felt like laser beams that was melting my body, and I could hear ringing and the rush of blood in my ear. I started my presentation, but everyone was talking (which I didn't mind nor really noticed due to the high amount of adrenaline in my body) and by the time my teacher realized I was presenting was when I switched slides, and she told me I had to restart. I wanted to die when she said that because that meant I had to stand up there longer. I went back and started over and heard someone say that I was being a hardo. It made me more embarrassed because I low-key was being a hardo on a project that didn't really matter simply because I had the rare opportunity to publicly fan girl over Frida Kahlo.
I continued my presentation, but the part that killed me was when I looked at my phone and realized I need to fill up 2 minutes of empty time which made me malfunction. I started saying um (which minds you make you lose a half point each time you say it) and I my knees starting buckling and I heard someone comment on it which made me freeze up. I recollected myself and was able to finish the presentation on time and with a good grade, but it's the reason why I refuse to do a oral presentation again in my life unless I absolutely have to. And me talking about Frida Kahlo for a while was hard, but of course my love for her took over, and I was back to obsessing over her soon after. Anyway that's one of the most embarrassing things in my life. I feel like this is more of a funny story than embarrassing, but Ça m'est égal right. Anyway hope this story made you smile and until next week America.
I’m impressed you had all this anxiety surrounding this situation and yet you still say its a funny story! Yeah.... presentations that are strictly graded are cruel, on one hand I do think you improve by being forced to practice, but also they’re so scary 😭 I hope afterward you were super relieved!
I hate when people talk while other people are presenting especially if they're being rude like those kids. It also seems pretty harsh that your teacher took off half a point every time you said "um". usually during oral presentations I just black out, especially if I feel like it's going poorly so this post hit deep
I feel like me and you have similar views on embarrassment (no surprise there), but yeah Mrs.C****’s presentation was so scary T-T. Unlike you tho, I didn’t make a good grade cuz I rushed through my presentation. Dark times man, dark times
Gosh, I hate when teachers make rules where you lose points for saying "um" or "like." And I feel you about the stress of hearing people say you're a "hardo," I have some embarrassing memories of people making comments while I was giving a presentation ://
glad you were able to get a good grade on the presentation anyway. Those high school oral presentations were the worst...
(also it's interesting reading what different people's opinions about embarrassment are)