There are times when I see someone saying or doing inconceivably absurd things, the kind that draw considerable attention from others, and simply walk it off later as though nothing happened. Such instances always make me feel conflicted, since I’m not sure whether to admire them or to question their way of life. Because genuinely, how do they recover from such situations without wishing they were swallowed by the ground beneath their feet? It’s a skill I long to have. While I have gotten better at bouncing back from socially awkward situations, it’s still a major work in progress. For some reason, such situations seem to find me more than most of the people I know. Anyone who has known me well enough must have questioned, at least once, how such things even happen to me. So let me share with you some instances that, on one hand, I wish I could Ctrl-z out of my memory, yet on the other hand, I’m grateful for all the interesting lore they have added to my life. Moreover, I will try to extract some silver lining out of these incidents, just as a desperate attempt to convince myself that these moments were somehow character-building.
To start off, we have what I like to call a “digital oopsie”. If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I can be incredibly primitive when it comes to technology, whether it’s sending texts in the wrong chats or abusing my laptop when it lags. But the most humbling instance of them all is the time when I accidentally presented all my chats during an online class when I was supposed to be sharing a PowerPoint presentation instead. I think many of us are familiar with the craze of Google Hangouts—our respite during the mind-numbing drone of online school. My classmates and I would do anything but focus during class, so we obviously carried out all our side quests through our chats. And now… the chats were all exposed, free for everyone including our teacher to see. Luckily, it was only a few moments (which then felt like an eternity) before I hastily switched to the correct tab like a confused granny. There was nothing particularly incriminating in those chats that would have required me to permanently delete my account, yet it did teach me to be extra careful with myself, simply because I don’t trust myself enough.
However, what no one told me was that not only should I not trust myself, but also others, when it comes to my precious chats. This brings me to the second kind of social-death scenario—chat-hijacking. If you’ve had some particularly kaleshi (troublemaking) friends, you’d understand. For some reason, I’ve been a victim of chat-hijacking a few too many times, where my friends would spam my personal and group chats with absolute nonsense through my account. One such instance of chat-hijacking involved my friends sending a whole string of pretty damning texts and emails to my crush at the time, leaving me hassled and helpless as I watched them hog my laptop. Like these, there have been several other times when such texting misadventures have resulted in petty high school chaos, which would take me far too long to get into within the span of this article. But I cannot lie, reminiscing as a college student makes me realise just how many entertaining stories I can share with new people I meet, thanks to these instances.
Speaking of crushes, I have one last, probably one of the most mortifying incidents to share. We’re all familiar with the madness of party games, especially games like Truth or Dare or Paranoia. Well, playing such games when you have a crush you desperately want to hide is like holding a lit match next to a gas leak. Moreover, in a tiny, tight-knit class, such information often spreads like wildfire. You probably know where I’m going with this. Let’s just say nothing went the way I wanted it to, to save myself from complete disclosure. Although something like this has been a canon event in many people’s lives at some point in time. Where are they all now? Living life, as one does.Â
This goes to say that such incidents, which may make you want to disappear into thin air at first, become nothing more than a shallow crater in the path you uniquely carve out for yourself as you go about your life. Obviously, I don’t mean to discount the embarrassment one may feel in the moment. All I mean to say is, such a shift in perspective has helped me realise over the years that such social mishaps often don’t end up mattering in the long run.Â
So go ahead. Do some more stupid stuff. Regret it later. And continue living like you’re meant to.