Blusher | Úna Farrell

     Welcome to Fresher’s Week and the official beginning of your college year. With the amount of first introductions, alcohol consumed and new experiences happening around the place this is the perfect time for all those embarrassing moments to take advantage and shine. If those ice breakers in orientation weren’t embarrassing enough you have plenty time here to make a fool of yourself.

     Embarrassment is one of the universe’s little ways of reminding us that we are but mere pawns in life. We are no better than anyone else. We are all human and we all do our fair share of embarrassing acts. The feelings of shame and embarrassment always manage to bring us down a peg or two. Being in college will guarantee your fair amount of embarrassing situations. They are unavoidable. Life will aim to humiliate shame, embarrass, mortify and humble us by pushing us into situations with no possible good outcome.

     I have had my sum of embarrassing moments. Some I would rather forget. Some I can laugh about know. Some I will never ever reveal to anyone. Some that make me blush thinking about them. Some I constantly reminded of by others who find great entertainment in their hilarity. They say if you can laugh at yourself its half the battle. But sometimes there’s nothing to do but hang your head in shame, while your scarlet cheeks burn the feeling into memory.

While some have the unfortunate luck to have a long repertoire of embarrassing moments, others have but a few moments where we look back and cringe. I think as you get older there are fewer things you find embarrassing. Think back to your teenage years. Everything embarrassed you. Your parent’s existence was enough to mortify you. Talking to a member of the opposite sex caused a crimson flushed face. Sex scenes on the TV made you cringe uncontrollably. Growing up I find myself less embarrassed by certain things.

     Don’t get me wrong, I am still mortified on a regular basis. But there has been a shift in what causes the embarrassment. It’s my own actions which are the cause these days. Fuelled by alcohol I find myself increasingly doing stupid things which come back to bite me in the ass the next morning. It has come to the point where I dread looking at my phone the morning after a night under the influence.

     In dealing with embarrassment I take one of two approaches. Being the mature adult I am I can address the situation head on and bite the bullet. Apologise for my actions.  Or, I completely bury my head in the sand. Ignore the fact that I have done something stupid and hope no one ever brings it up again. It sounds childish but ignorance is bliss as they say!

     I still think I’ve been lucky though. You know those moments when you see something happen to someone and you actually blush for them? Cringey, awkward moments where the ground needs to open up and swallow people whole. Then the little moments which happen to everyone nearly. Girls whose skirts are tucked into their underwear. People with toilet tissue stuck to their shoes. Walk of Shamers. People with something stuck in their teeth.

     Embarrassment is something we all have to deal with. But they’re fleeting moments. Someone else will do something soon after you have and laughter will turn to them. Life is too short to be embarrassed all the time. Blush. Laugh. Move on. Life would be boring without embarrassment.