(Pre-ACT: I stumbled on the floor)

Embarrassed? Why should I?

Fellow Toastmasters, have you been embarrassed in your whole life many times? Or have you contemplated all your embarrassments and start laughing at it when remembered? Me? I always do!

Embarrassment is an unpleasant emotional state experienced upon having a socially unacceptable act or condition witnessed by or revealed to others.

There are three kinds of embarrassments. First, the kind of embarrassment that other people cause you to suffer. I have not had too many of those because I don’t embarrass easily, as you might guess. The second kind of embarrassment is situational and largely by chance. The third kind of embarrassment is directly the result of something you yourself did, by words or actions, or both. And I got lots of it.

Let me relate to you when I was just a kid, I used to snatched food from our store like ice candy, corn chips and bread without Mom’s permission.

One day, Mom wasn’t around, so I took a piece of ice candy from our fridge and tucked it in my shorts’ garter then hurriedly ran to my room and there enjoyed eating it. A bit later, I went back to the store to get some corn chips, but I was caught! How? I was about to go out from the store with the chips in my hand when I heard Mom’s footsteps. I was in panic that I suddenly threw the chips away! Unfortunately, the chips landed to my Mom’s arm, I hit her! That was a real embarrassing experience, the fact that our neighbors knew it after. I learned my lesson: not to throw anything away, just hide it in my garters because I succeeded with the ice candy J.
Another one was when I was in high school, my Mom asked me to cook chicken feet. She instructed me to clean it and cooked. So I boil a pan of water, pour the seasonings and stir the ingredients a bit later. When I finished cooking it, I then called them for lunch. I was really surprised when my Mom got angry and nagged at me. It was then that I realized it was because of the chicken feet I cooked, I didn’t cut the chicken claws. But I cleaned it properly, even brushed it. Still they didn’t eat it, me either hehe. Lesson learned: It’s nice to have our nails manicured and pedicured .

Lets skip ahead to college. I'm on a roll. Why not embarrass myself even further.
It was my last year in college when we had our JS Prom. I was the vice president of the council and I was tasked to give a speech. I was so excited but the problem was, I got no dress to wear. Good thing our neighbor has let me borrow her blue haltered dress that made me look sexy and pretty. When the party started, I was very confident walking with my dress until dinner.

We sat around the table at Elena Tower Inn when someone commented on the table covers. It was then that everyone noticed that it has the same cloth and color of the dress I wore. I was very embarrassed. How I wished the Earth could swallow me up and hide me underground, down the purgatory J But nothing happened, I didn’t vanish. So what I did was just smiled and tried to regain my confidence. Mind you, I was awarded as the Ms. Senior with that dress! The best lesson I’ve learned: Be yourself whatever happens, stay confident at all times, because that might be the only thing others may don’t have.

Now, the moral of this effort: If you do something really embarrassing, don’t try to cover it up with a falsehood or fabrication of the truth. Just admit it was just a dumb moment in your life. Everyone will relate to your embarrassment and feel your pain because committing a mistake is a part and parcel of being a human. As what Buck has said, great virtues will make a person admirable, little faults will make him lovable.

Good evening!