Dec 3, 2015 / Inspiration

Boy, Is My Face Red

Publishing an embarrassing story can be both liberating and satisfying.

I have an admission to make: sometimes when I read your blog posts, I get a little jealous. Your amazing recipes, workout plans, gorgeous families, and home renovations make my average life pale in comparison. When I feel this way, I sometimes wish I had a modicum of perfection, or some wild successes to share. I know I’m not alone. Blogs and other social media can give us “the grass is greener on the other side of the fence” syndrome. The funny thing is, as much as I enjoy following sites that make me swoon with admiration, I absolutely love reading posts that depict life’s imperfections even more.

I couldn’t appear perfect with a team of well-oiled public relations consultants working around the clock to hone my image.

The rate at which a person can mature is directly proportional to the embarrassment he can tolerate.
-Douglas Engelbart

So what’s a girl to do when she’s got no hope of being anyone’s green-grass-on-the-other-side-of-the-fence? I write about the embarrassing moments… the moments that make me want to stick my head in the sand. Why do I publish stories that logic tells me to hide? It takes away the power of those awful experiences when I admit them to the world. It’s cathartic. And, if I’m lucky, telling these stories will make people laugh, which I love to do.

Nothing goes away on the internet. Once we share something in cyberspace, it can hang around forever. That’s why many of us don’t want to publicize our weaknesses and missteps. On one hand, we want to be open and honest with the world… on the other, we have to be protective of ourselves and consider our futures. This leads a lot of bloggers to publicize their wins, but keep their losses private. 

What’s the worst thing that could happen if we all wrote about our most embarrassing moments?

What if a potential employer were to read about the time a Buddhist monk witnessed my husband and me arguing atop a Zen meditation bridge in an otherwise-silent botanical garden? (I wish the argument had been about something more meaningful than whether or not we’d eat Indian food for dinner that evening.)

The embarrassment of a situation can, once you are over it, be the funniest time in your life.
-Miranda Hart

What if my in-laws learned about the time I walked around for over an hour with my entire skirt tucked into the front of my underwear while I was window shopping in Beverly Hills? (Any one of a hundred people could have signaled me that I was inadvertently flashing the world.)

What if a new friend found out that I accidentally hit “reply all” on an email in which I called one of the people on the recipient list a “human sleeping pill” and “so boring, she’d make an oil painting yawn?” (This still makes me feel awful a decade later.) 

There. I just told you three events that were horrible when I experienced them, and I’m still here! The world hasn’t swallowed me whole.

There’s something liberating about not pretending. Dare to embarrass yourself. Risk.
-Drew Barrymore

Why do I love sharing embarrassing stories more than touting my successes? Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment (or a gluten for punishment, as I typed before autocorrect saved me). Maybe in a world filled with pictures of perfectly-iced cakes, well-dressed children, and six-pack abs, I feel stressed out and disingenuous if I try to compete. But when I tell stories of the sales tags I’ve worn on clothes to job interviews, or how I tried to climb onto a horse for the first time — and immediately fell off the other side of the same horse seconds later — I feel as if I’m being to true to who I am, and I’m trusting my readers to accept me as I am.

Here’s another bonus: if we write about our blunders, we’ll never run out of material!

It’s scary to do this sometimes. Anytime we post to our blogs, we open ourselves up to public critique. We are putting ourselves into the hands of friends and strangers and telling them, “I trust you with this piece of me.” Blogging is already a brave activity, without the addition of opening ourselves up to ridicule. Being candid and genuine is a far more impressive feat than putting forth the perfected version of ourselves. 

If blogging about awkwardness makes you squeamish, check out this amazing post. Do you judge these folks, or do you laugh in commiseration?

Next time you’re trying to decide whether or not to post the picture of your kids screaming while you tried to take the photo for your holiday card, or the Spongebob cake you made that looks more like a giant piece of melted swiss cheese, know this: I wanna see those real moments. Many of us would. Not because we want to laugh at you, but because we want to laugh with you. Because we humans relate to one another through our imperfections. 

Are there any embarrassing stories you’ve censored yourself from sharing, but you’ve always wanted to tell? If so, what’s holding you back?

blushemojis1

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  2. It’s so lovely to read blogs where the author is refreshingly honest!! So many I’ve read where people ‘tout their successes’ and to be honest, it’s just not interesting anymore. :’) I’ve just posted my first ever blog post and I have no idea what’s going to become of it! Probably it’ll just sit here and no one will see it and in years to come it can be an embarrassing story! Best wishes, Alonissa x

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Love, love, love your blog article! 🙂 This was great to read and I am glad you wrote about this topic because I have been wondering about exposing myself in my writing and what others would think about it. You are right that it takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there as a writer. I appreciated you sharing a few of your embarrassing moments with us viewers and I did laugh with you about them! 🙂 Hugs! 😉

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    1. Thanks! I’m glad I didn’t make you turn off your computer in disgust! Go for it…push the limits. You don’t have to go from zero-to-60…ease into it!

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    1. “What Did You Want to Be When You Were 10?” I wanted to be Evita Peron. What can I say? I only knew the Broadway musical…I didn’t really understand fascism at age 10.

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  7. Great post Robyn! I agree with the social media comment above. Our lives are so full of airbrushed, fake images in the media. We all need a taste of what’s real.

    Personally I don’t want to read about someone who has it all together 24/7. It’s just not that believable to me. But reading about someone who’s not afraid of showing their true colors, flaws and all is much more interesting to me. It takes guts to be completely authentic. The world definitely needs more posts like this!

    Keep on sharing your embarrassing moments!

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  9. I love this! I used to worry about doing dumb stuff but then I thought about it one day and tried to recall the last dumb mistake my husband did, or my mom. I really can’t, because I didn’t care. They don’t care about my silly mistakes and probably can’t name them either. So I embraced it. Part of what I blog about are my fails when I do my cooking and Pinterest projects. That’s what makes them fun!!

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  10. I love this! I just started a blog and it’s funny you posted this because I was super shy about making blog, I was so afraid that I was going to embarrass myself and that people would think the things I write about are stupid, but I broke out of my shell and took a chance! I’m not one to talk about embarrassing moments, I’ll often think about an embarrassing shudder …my biggest fear is embarrassing myself! thanks for sharing.

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  13. Hmmmm….But private is private and there are some things I would never share on open internet. But I never mind how many people laugh at what I do that’s silly or just an embarrassing mishap. Doesn’t laughter release soem important endorphins in our bodies thus helping good health develop? I remember very heatedly telling my late husband that there were three things that he needed to be looking at and that he was going to hear right then.I numbered one and two and my mind went blank!!!! We both broke out into laughter and all was well with our world!

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    1. I love that story! And I think you’re right about endorphins. Our embarrassing stories boost the health of others. We are like doctors.

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  15. I can completely relate to this. I wrote about wanting to become a little gutsy and I went a bit too emotional on it. My sister posted the whole thing on Facebook, thinking that it was very honest and people should know about my blog. I panicked. Because I am not a Facebook fan. And I was worried for an hour. Then I regrouped. It didn’t seem like a big deal. I thought, “At least I had the guts to write something nobody I know would dare to do.” In a way, writing about “wanting to be gutsy” made me gutsy.
    Blogging is therapeutic!
    Great post by the way. 🙂

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    1. Well…now my face is red. 🙂 I’m new to this site, if you can’t tell…! 🙂 But, I really know where you’re coming from. I always want to share the silly, minute things too.. but I feel like I’m bothering people with the boring details or bringing people down when my stories aren’t 100% uplifting… Anyways, I loved your post. It’s the first one that I’ve read here that almost makes this website seem like a community. 🙂

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  17. I have too many embarrassing stories to pick one! You’re right though, transparency and honesty are important for making a connection with anyone. It’s better to accept something for what it is and move on than continue to let it get us down. Although some of my Facebook posts and pictures may be qualified as embarrassing, I hope they don’t effect future career opportunities.

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    1. New blogger here! You are so great at this I couldn’t stop reading. Why did it end =(. Hope I get to write like that!

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  18. Wonderful post! I myself feel no shame admitting my embarrassments but have never thought about them from another point of view. Excellent and thought provoking. Thank you for sharing 🙂

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  21. Brilliant! I find all the “perfect”, polished stories and blogs a little bit *whisper* boring 😉 My life is a constant stream of embarrassing, ridiculous and bewildering moments one after the other. I blame it on the fact that I once told the Universe I wanted my life to be full of fun and memorable moments. I forgot what sort of a sense of humour the Universe had. But those ridiculous moments, those cringeworthy stories – the ones you almost need to read peeking through your fingers – are the most relatable aren’t they. They’re the ones we secretly nod along with, either thinking “Oh geez, I’m glad that sort of stuff happens to other people too!” or “Thank God that wasn’t me this time!”

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  22. Oh, this a brave trend you’ve started here, loved reading it. I say ‘trend’, as you’ve inspired so many people here. I’m very new to blogging and i have been inspired to blog some of my embarrassing moments someday too. Great post!:);)

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  23. It’s so true! This post is great! Im this trip alone I have given a gift my boyfriend bought for someone, to that persons son, popped my hip (stupid hip) in a yoga class which may have sounded like passing wind, (done that during a workout next to a six pack dude) and wore pink sneakers with yellow, red and black kurta outfit. Oops! 🙂 looking forward to reading more of your posts!

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  24. Great read it was an eye opener. Have just started blogging and after reading this post I feel yes even a recipe that didn’t turned out well can be shared. Readers will understand and relate to me more. Thanks for such a good post.

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    1. That’s so nice of you! Here’s my secret of writing: I just write like I speak. Luckily the Daily Post editors are here to fix my horrible punctuation mistakes!

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