WHATS YOURS?
NATIONAL ‘AWKWARD MOMENTS’ DAY
Can you believe that on March 18th, there is a National Awkward Moments Day? It may not be a coincidence that it falls the day immediately after St Patrick's Day, a day often associated in many parts of the world with vast amounts of alcohol and painting the town green.
It is an annual occasion to celebrate all things cringe worthy, toe curling, and downright, well………awkward. A day, I am absolutely positive that every person can and will relate to as we have all had awkward moments from time to time, as they are a part of life; they just happen!
Have you ever called someone by the wrong name, tripped over nothing, walked into a door, had the completely wrong words come out of your mouth or just forgot what you were doing? Maybe you walked out of a public toilet with loo roll on your shoe or worst still your knickers tucked into your skirt or both! (Guilty!) Or maybe when you’ve been speaking to someone and for the live of you either cannot remember their name or realise you don’t even know their name or worse still you don’t even know them! How about waving enthusiastically at your friend, only to realise up close you have never seen them before in your life!
The list is endless…… all situations where you hope your actions or words will go unnoticed and at the very least the ground will open up and swallow you whole.
One particularly awkward moment stuck in my mind and memory for years to come and relived every time I see a hotel with a revolving door. It is without doubt definitely in my top ten amongst the million and trillion awkward moments I have experienced to date.
How was I to know I was going the wrong way? Why didn’t I back track? Why didn’t I just go to a pub for a drink instead of taking on the challenge of a fancy rotating door of a hotel whose lobby loungers decided to stop and watch this rare happening?
Not only was it extremely public but it was excruciatingly painful, as did you know if you go the wrong way in a revolving door they don’t stop working but instead become very heavy, very stiff and very slow adopting a deathly squeak as they go as though you are dragging with every movement an undercarriage of mice. The sheer weight of trying to reach my destination took strength, determination, guts and a mastermind mentality – ‘I had started so I would finish’. No matter how many people stopped what they were doing and just stared. Feeling like a geriatric hamster on an unoiled wheel; every move in slow motion and with every second in this glass compartment feeling like an hour where I could only admire my reddening complexion in the glass as I persevered.
The cheers and claps and ‘didn’t she do well’ on finally reaching that pocket of air to step back into society added to the awkwardness as I then took the walk of shame thanking my lucky stars that the whole reason for entering this hotel via that damn doorway was to reach the bar!
However, if this had happened now I am sure I would have used my mobile phone to allow such an awkward moment to be handled more calmly. How many times have you pulled your phone out of your pocket when feeling awkward? Stuck in a lift, alone at the bar, caught in a queue – Facebook, email or even just a blank battery-less screen can feel like home when you’re at a loose end.
So, if anything awkward happens on Awkward Moments Day, be sure to see the humour, of the situation, and have a good laugh about it, before moving on to the next one!
How to Celebrate on the 18th?
👍We have all had awkward moments, so this can be a day to laugh at them and recognise these moments make for a memorable life.
👍Share an awkward moment with your family and friends and I am sure you will discover you’re not the only one with such awkward experiences and you may just end up feeling it wasn’t that bad after all…..
