Embarrassing moments can be funny

Next time you feel like you want to hide your face forever, simply laugh it off without any shame, and you might discover something invigorating.

Sometimes our most embarrassing experiences in life have the potential to become one of our finer moments. It all depends on how you look at it.

I was contemplating joining a local professional association and decided it would be a good idea to attend their free introductory meeting. I figured this would allow me to meet some of the people who belonged to this group and see if I really wanted to spend the money on the hefty membership fee. So I planned to go after work, meet the officers and introduce myself to a few members.

On the night the meeting was scheduled, I happened to have had a very long day at work. I had not had a chance to eat lunch and could feel my blood sugar dropping. Since this makes me light headed and a bit grumpy, I decided I had better stop at home and get a quick snack to hold me over, before I went to this meeting. After all, you never get a second chance to make a first impression, right?

That night, traffic was backed up, and it took me longer than usual to get home. I decided that all I had time to do was run inside, get an apple and a few crackers and then hurry on to this meeting. Before I left work, I had brushed my hair and checked my makeup, so I figured I had just enough time to eat my snack on the way and get to the meeting on time. I ran inside my house and put my purse down to grab my snack and a bottle of water. I shoved them into in my large purse, which can hold everything but the kitchen sink, and ran back outside to get in the car.

Fortunately, the traffic had cleared up. I whizzed downtown and made it to the meeting on time, with my blood sugar restored. "Great" I thought, "Everything is going perfectly". I went inside and all the newcomers were invited to sit at a round table and introduce themselves before the meeting started. It was very crowded, and I didn't really have room to put my purse on the floor or on my chair, so I put it on the table in front of me and settled down to listen to the speaker.

After the meeting, I did what I had intended to do. I introduced myself to the officers of this club and met a few other members. All in all, it seemed like a nice group of people. I did think that a few of them had looked at me with a funny look on their face, but I dismissed these thoughts from my head and decided this would be a good investment for me. I decided to join, picked up the necessary membership forms and headed home to relax after such a long day.

Before getting into my car, I stopped to use the restroom down the hall. When I looked at my reflection in the mirror, I almost died. All over the front of me, in my hair and on my enormous purse was a white chalky substance that would not come off. The harder I tried to rub it, the grayer and dirtier it looked. I was absolutely mortified, thinking about the first impression I had made. I racked my brains to think of what I could have gotten all over me and how could I have not noticed it beforeI went into the meeting?

Then I realized what had happened.

We are renovating our house, and the drywall had just been sanded. When I ran inside to get my snack, I must have put my purse down in a big pile of dust from the drywall. Then I probably picked it up, hugged it against my chest as I ran out the door and jumped into the car. By then, it was dark, so I would not have noticed it all over me.

When I'm stressed or rushing I tend to play with my hair, which explained why it was all over my head as well. I just stood in the restroom, staring at the mirror, horrified. I wondered what those people must have thought about me. What a first impression I had just made.

As I slunk out of the building I could feel my cheeks burning with embarrassment. But as I made my way to the car, I heard this voice in my head to say to me, "Find the humor in it, it is kind of funny." I reflected on the fact that despite my bizarre appearance, people had been very friendly and welcoming, and no one had made me feel strange or inappropriate.

I was mulling this over when I remembered something a teacher had once shared with me. I had been at a weeklong training seminar led by two very famous women, who were my role models. Since many of us in attendance were in awe of the teachers, we were a little ill at ease in their company. These two women decided that it was important for all of us to realize that everyone has insecurities and we all have had embarrassing moments in our life. They didn't want us to put them on a pedestal and feel inhibited from asking questions or enjoying our time together.

So they decided to share with us several of their most embarrassing moments when they first started out in their career. One story stood out in particular and had us all screeching with laughter. One of my teachers had been speaking at a convention to a crowd of about 2,000 people. She was so inundated with questions at the break that she did not have a chance to use the restroom. So finally, she decided to take another quick break to use the bathroom. When she came back on stage, she was greeted with a standing ovation and the crowd roared with applause. A bit startled, she looked to her assistant to ascertain what had caused such a response from the audience. Scarlet with embarrassment, her assistant informed her that she had gone to the bathroom and left her microphone on.

As we all laughed at this faux pas, this woman described the lesson she learned at that moment. Sometimes it is very empowering to be totally without shame and be able to laugh at yourself. It is very endearing quality, and her audience genuinely admired her ability to laugh it off and move on. She realized that part of being able to connect with her students was her ability to be authentic not to put on airs and pretend to be something she was not.

As a teacher and a leader, she wanted us to know how important it is not to get caught up in our own press or feel separate from the people we were working with. Even when her students wanted to put her up on a pedestal, she did her best to dispel these notions of superiority.

I thought about this as I was driving home and decided that my own embarrassing experience could be an opportunity for me as well. We tend to get so caught up with how we look and what people think of us that we can lose sight of who we really are. I have always liked that expression "What other people think of me is none of my business".

I decided this was a great chance for me to put this into practice. When I initially saw that white chalky dust all over me, I decided there was no way I would join that group. I am usually a meticulous dresser, and people would describe me as polished and put together.

But after thinking it over, I decided to laugh at myself and just join anyway. I want to be free to go where I want and be who I am, regardless of how I look or feel. So I shook the dust out of my hair and went home to fill out my paperwork