Recently, I asked the BuzzFeed Community to share an embarrassing school memory that they still cringe and think about. The results had me laughing, but also, relating:
1. "I walked to school and spent half the morning with a pair of underwear sticking out the bottom cuff of my jeans. When I noticed, I shoved them far in the back of my desk until I could get to my backpack."
2. "It was Spirit Week, and one of the days was 'Weather Day.' Thinking we had the best idea ever, my best friend and I dressed up as if we’d gone through a tornado — hair a mess, makeup a mess, our clothes all messy. We walked into school so confidently until we saw everyone else — dressed AS weather types: a cloud, sunshine, etc."
"Everyone stared at us, and we were SO embarrassed."
3. "I was rushing to get to my next class between the bells ringing. The hallways were pretty crowded, but I noticed up ahead there was a space. I quickly walked that way, not noticing the wet floor sign. I slipped and fell, HARD. I had wet spots on my arm and jeans. In my next class, I heard people talking about someone who had just gotten sick in the hallway and someone else who had fallen in it (me)."
4. "I used to wear fake tan cream only on my face, so I would go to school with a bright orange face thinking I looked good and got called an Oompa Loompa for the next year or so."
5. "I kept an inflatable bat in my locker. I got it from a joke shop somewhere, and being a typical 13-year-old girl, stowed it in my locker for the full three years I was in middle school and would periodically whip it out and ask unsuspecting passersby to hold it while I looked for other things. I loved their reactions then, but, looking back, I think I get why I didn’t have many friends..."
6. "Ever have mucus drip down your face from a sneeze when you’re trying to give a presentation in front of the whole class? I have."
7. "I wore a cape. I thought it would make me look cool. It did not."
8. "Teacher had announced after Christmas break that she'd have a baby that summer. Last day of school, as I'm leaving her class and leaving that school for the last time, I stumble over words and say, 'Hope it doesn't hurt too much when you have the baby.' I meant to say, 'Good luck with your baby.' I still cringe every time I think about it."
9. "In seventh grade, I was in a play. I had to pretend to faint and have another person catch me. During a showing for an elementary school (so all 10 years old and younger), I fell wrong, and my skirt-clad legs flew open, revealing my bright green underpants. All the children laughed, and I never emotionally recovered from a room of 100+ people seeing my whole business."
10. "Reading aloud from the textbook in my science class, I mistakenly pronounced 'organism' as 'orgasm.' Everyone laughed, and my teacher blushed, but I was too young to know what an orgasm was!"
11. "I was maybe 13–14 years old, and Heelys (those cool skate-shoes) were super trendy. I got my parents to get me a pair of them and thought I'd look super cool taking them to the mall. Welp, I ended up slipping and falling on my ass in front of the entire food court because of it."
"I was super embarrassed. Didn't show my face at that mall for a couple of years after that."
12. "In sixth grade, I was chewing on a pen. It cracked, and the ink went all over the inside of my mouth. I didn't want to draw attention to my now blue mouth, so I went and got a few tissues and pretended to blow my nose while spitting out all the ink... One of my classmates saw it and told everyone I blew my nose, then licked the tissue."
"Which, to be fair, is precisely what it looked like... Never lived that down."
13. "I forgot my lines in the school play in front of the entire school. We were spelling out Martin Luther King's name, and each letter was assigned a poem to recite. I had the letter 'H.' When my time came to recite my lines, I went blank. I tried to continue, but all I could say was, 'H is for, H is for...H.' The entire auditorium broke into laughter, including the teachers. I was so embarrassed..."
14. "I asked a friend to go to a dance in front of a massive group. He said yes. I went to hug him. He went for a high-five."
—Anonymous, 32
15. "I was a very active and flexible child, more than average in gymnastics and dance. One day in theater class, I wanted to impress my crush with a back roll into the splits. After accomplishing the trick, I gathered myself to see my teacher's eyes as big as dinner plates. I was wearing a dress. I had flashed the entire class in my bright pink undergarments. Some people laughed, while others were also in shock."
"If I could have just disappeared at any moment, it would be then."
—Anonymous, 22
16. "In eighth grade, I had my best friend pay for a candy gram for Valentine’s Day but sign my crush’s name so that everyone in the class would think we were together. However, my stupid ass didn’t realize that my crush was ALSO in our class and would immediately realize that he didn’t send me a candy gram, which meant my whole plan was ruined. I went to school with said crush through college and never lived it down."
17. "I was in the eighth grade, and for some reason, I decided to collect acorns on my way to school. I must have had 20 of them in my uniform jumper pockets. I had to get up and walk in front of the class to throw something away, and I tripped, and all of the acorns went spilling everywhere. All my classmates looked puzzled as to why I had all these acorns. I was utterly mortified. Looking back, I can laugh, but I remember the embarrassment."
"I've always been a little weird, but now, I celebrate and embrace who I am."
—Anonymous, 52
18. "One time in middle school, two boys (including one I had the biggest crush on) and I were sent down to the cafeteria to collect our stuff from a fundraiser that just happened. My middle school was two stories, so on the way back up the steps, I tripped and fell on the very last step and fell on top of the stuff I was holding. Pretty sure my pants came down a little, so my bottom was just barely exposed, and the two boys just laughed and started walking away."
—Anonymous, 22
19. "My friends and I were horsing around in gym class, and the instructor got mad at us and made us sit on the bench. While she was yelling at us, I farted. Loud. Not on purpose."
20. "We have an amusement park near where I went to middle school. On our last day, it was tradition for the entire class to go there for the day — imagine the park packed with mostly 14–15-year-old kids, as most schools in the area had the same tradition. As I was walking with my friends down a very crowded area, I was 'pantsed' (elastic waist shorts ripped down to my ankles) by one of my BFFs. THANKFULLY, my thong underwear stayed put, but I was mortified as I bent over to put my shorts back in place."
"I have never walked down that same park area without thinking back to that cringe day 35 years ago."
—Anonymous, 49
21. "Let me start off by saying I was not popular in school and kept to myself, but that all changed while taking yearbook photos in 10th grade. I got up to walk away, but I tripped on the leg of the stool, and I fell directly into the backdrop behind me, which fell down. When it fell down, it also knocked down the other backdrop like dominos, four in total. Since we were in the gym, it made a loud sound. You were thinking that someone let off some fireworks. After the embarrassment and the walk of shame out of the gym, the poor photo staff had to reassemble the backdrops. It took them about 45 minutes to start retaking photos. That, in turn, caused a huge delay in taking photos for the rest of the day since it went alphabetically by last name, and my last name starts with I. The next day, I heard they did not finish all the photos until around 4:30 p.m. The last period ended at 3:15 p.m."
"Being popular for about three months for the wrong reason was not very fun."
—Anonymous, 45
22. "One day in high school, I was sitting in the library at lunchtime with my then-boyfriend. Suddenly, I felt like I was going to be violently ill. A mad dash to the bathroom sadly didn't work, and I ended up vomiting profusely (bright neon yellow) into a garbage can in the hallway with all of those with my same lunch period watching. This happened at the beginning of the school year, and someone wrote about it in my yearbook at the end of the year, saying I was a nice girl who threw up in the garbage can in front of the library, and they hope I go far in life and stop throwing up."
23. "I was pouring milk into a measuring cup in grade 11 foods class, and the lid fell off the jug spilling milk all over me, the table, and floor. This happened in front of the whole class. I was an extremely shy kid and was dying inside with everyone staring at me. The teacher had to come help me clean up the gigantic mess."
"I still feel embarrassed every time I remember it."
—Anonymous, 34
24. "I was zoned out to music (headphones on) with multiple people around me. I was minding my own business, when I thought I heard someone say my name. So, I responded with a really loud, "YEAH?" and all eyes turned to me, realizing no one had called for me."
"I felt like crawling into a hole, but now, I just think back on it and laugh."
—Anonymous, 22