That Awkward Moment When…

I’ve always thought of myself as sort of an awkward or quirky person. I’ve done a lot of things in my lifetime that some people would probably consider excruciatingly embarrassing or painful to be involved in. Even though these moments didn’t phase me too much I thought you readers might get a little chuckle out of them. So here you go, four of my most awkward experiences during my time so far at East. Enjoy.

A Trip to the Boys Room

It’s probably one of the most commonly portrayed scenes in TeenNick shows. It is a recurring nightmare for many kids before their first days of school. It’s something that you hear about and think, “That’s so stupid! I would never let that happen to myself!” Unfortunately, I let the inevitable happen. Freshman year, I did in fact walk into the boys’ locker room. When I tell people, they usually think I’m just trying to get a laugh out of them.

I’m not joking. It is a true traumatic experience that I had to go through, it’s easy to talk about now but it was a very sore subject for awhile. Here’s how it went:

It was a Friday afternoon in April of 2011 and I was rushing out of school to get ready for this phat rager I was going to (OK, just kidding — I was really rushing home to finish my Conjuguemos before my teacher closed the assignment.) I decided to take a different path than usual. I took the staircase all the way down on the first floor by the weight room, since I knew that it would be the least crowded. Of course, since I was a freshman I didn’t know the school very well yet, and I took a wrong turn: what I thought was the door to the stairwell turned out to be the back door of the boys’ locker room. I took one step in and got a huge whiff of B.O. and Axe body spray. I saw three confused, stubbly male faces staring at me with eyes full of disgust. I don’t know if they were more embarrassed than I was… I mean, they were the half-naked ones in the situation.

Once I finally realized where I was and that I had probably been there for an uncomfortable 30 seconds, which felt way too long, I sprinted my behind out of there. To this day I have still not seen those three boys again (maybe they transferred schools?).

Traffic Jammed

I know for a fact that everyone at one point in their high school career has caused a traffic jam on the stairs. What separates my experience from many others is the fact that I stood in the middle of the staircase, stuck, with about 50 people surrounding me, for almost five minutes.

Let me tell you that five minutes could’ve easily been three hours because, being in my position, it felt so much longer.

It all happened because my stupid backpack strap got stuck on the railing of the stairs. It was literally intertwined with that railing — I don’t even know how it got so stuck, but it was like a little boy scout had tied it into one big knot around the railing while I wasn’t looking. I stood there with a face of embarrassment and pain because I was still struggling to unravel myself from that dang railing.

People were starting to get angry. I was being pushed and shoved and scratched. I felt like I was being attacked by a herd of cats – except these weren’t cats. They were just some angry, judgemental high-schoolers. After I was finally released from the railings grasp, I hustled away from my crime scene, because I was still afraid of an after-the-fact shove or two.

Toilet Tunes

I’ve always been quite the song bird.

I don’t think that there has ever been a day that I don’t randomly belt out the oh-so famous masterpieces created by Nicki Minaj. I’ve always looked at my talent of singing as a blessing — but in this case, it was more of a curse.

It was the beginning of the school year, I was getting into the flow of things. One particular day, I left my fourth hour for my routine three-minute roam of the hallways (which I did to keep myself from falling asleep during the lesson).

This day’s roaming session was one of the less interesting ones — until I walked into the bathroom. I hadn’t realized it, but I had been singing a song quietly to myself as I walked, and I kept on singing to myself. Right as I was walking into the bathroom, I reached the chorus of the song “Dance (A$$) Remix.” I guess you could say I got a little overly excited and started loudly singing and shouting each word.

At the time, I assumed I would be the only one in the bathroom, but of course, with my luck, there was a timid little freshman standing in front of the sink. Her face got one of those expressions on it that only comes out when you see a teacher at the grocery store, or when your mom attempts Dance Dance Revolution in front of all of your friends at the arcade. There was no way for her to leave the bathroom without making awkward eye contact with me, so as she walked by I just stood there and smiled at her — I think it kind of freaked her out even more.

At first I just thought to myself, “Wow, that was uncomfortable.” Then I walked out and saw the same girl sitting on the floor, working on a project with her friend, and got a terrified look from both of them. I knew it was one of my not-so-shining moments.

McKenzie Swanson | The Harbinger Online

I always thought that Choir was a place where I could be comfortable and open in front of all of my friends. That thought changed completely after a rehearsal for our spring concert. We were practicing on the risers in the auditorium, which has always been a scary thing for me to do because I have terrible balance and a fear of fainting. We started off the rehearsal by singing one of our fun upbeat songs.

Mr. Foley had said, “I want you girls to end this song in a funny pose.” Of course, my friend Victoria and I came up with this scheme that would help us achieve the most outrageous ending pose — which eventually put me in a bit of a pickle.

The incident went a bit like this: I had conducted a plan for me to jump into Victoria’s arms since she was standing next to me. It was supposed to look very well-planned and humorous. Right as the end of our song was approaching, I took a big leap off the place I was standing on the risers and tried to swing my legs up high enough for Victoria to catch me. Unfortunately, she forgot our “amazing plan,” and in turn left me on my hands and knees on the bleachers facing a room full of laughter coming from my peers, directed toward myself. Luckily, only about half of the people at rehearsal had seen me fall but I was still mortified.

The only good thing that came of that incident was that I got to sit out of cheer practice after school due to my “injured knee.”