Operation Pocket Pants
Operation Pocket Pants
When you own an embarrassing moment, it loses its power.
Packing for camp took me four minutes.
My mom said to fold everything neatly.
So, I did the only logical thing and folded them according to my definition of ‘neat’.
I put everything in the bag as fast as possible and sat on it until it closed.
Seemed neat to me.
The first morning at Lakeside Sports Camp was going great.
I found the dining hall without getting lost. I ate three amazing pancakes, and I managed to get up before the first bell.
Things were looking up.
I grabbed my bag, headed out of the cabin, and walked across the entire camp to the main field.
It was a long walk. I went past the dining hall, past the counselor’s office, and then right through a group of forty kids.
I waved at a few of them, but I noticed some of them gave me a very strange look and waved back hesitantly.
I assumed they just weren’t morning people.
I found a spot next to a boy named Dev, who was bent over tying his shoes.
“Morning,” I said.
“Hey,” said Dev.
He looked at me quickly and then did a double take.
“DUDE,” he said.
“What?”
“You've got... something.”
“What?”
He pointed to my back.
I reached around to the back of my shorts.
I felt a long piece of fabric.
Specifically, a pair of blue striped boxer shorts, hanging completely out of my back pocket like a flag.
A flag that I had unknowingly been waving across the entire camp.
My eyes widened, and I put my hand over my mouth in disbelief as I thought about how many people I had just walked past. I realized this was why the kids from the other cabin were giving me a weird look.
I sat completely still for what felt like an hour.
There are a few things you can do when something extremely embarrassing happens like this.
Option one: pretend it did not happen and hope everyone forgets.
Option two: Teleport to another country
Option three: Do the thing I was just about to do.
I pulled the boxer shorts out of my pocket.
I held them up.
“Anyone lose these?” I asked loudly.
The whole group stared at me.
Then Dev laughed so hard he fell off the bench.
Everyone began laughing, including me.
It was absolutely embarrassing, but I started to laugh.
The look on Dev's face when he fell off the bench was one of the funniest things I had ever seen in my life. Forty kids had already seen the boxer flag, so there was nothing left to protect.
When there is nothing left to protect, laughing is the easiest thing in the world.
Dev and I ate lunch together.
He told me about the time he went an entire school day with his shorts on inside out, and nobody said anything until his dad picked him up.
It wasn’t worse than my boxer situation, but I could see how it was still embarrassing for him.
He seemed to think it was worse than the boxer flag.
I did not shove everything into my bag after that.
Well, I technically still shoved everything in my bag, but now I make sure to check my pockets when I put something on.
Takeaway
The second you pretend an embarrassing moment did not happen; it can feel bigger.
The second you own it, it shrinks.
When you can laugh at yourself after something awkward happens, life can feel much easier.
Everyone has done something embarrassing.
Everyone has their own boxer flag story. When you laugh at yours, other people feel less alone about theirs. Now this is a social superpower.
Try This
Ask yourself: Will this matter in ten years?
The boxer flag will not matter in ten years. The inside-out shorts will not matter in ten years.
Almost nothing embarrassing ever does.
The embarrassing moment that turns into a story you tell later is almost always the one that made someone else laugh. The people who laugh with you, not at you, are usually worth knowing.
Think of something embarrassing that has already happened to you. Not something you are dreading, but something that is already over.
Can you find the funny in it yet?
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