Ah, the wonderful life of an awkward girl. The rest of the non-awkwards go through life with ease as we swim in our mass amount of sheer discomfort. Whether it’s tripping up the stairs, saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, or having sweaty palms right when we realize we have to shake someone’s hand, being awkward can be quite annoying. I, at one point, was drowning in all of my awkwardness, but one day the advice of my friend resonated with me deeply.
“A situation is only awkward if you make it awkward.”
I would like to introduce to you my Awkward Girl Survival Guide, where you can learn to own your awkwardness:
The Walking Dead
Tripping: the classic awkward moment is the trip. The trip I am referring to is when you stumble and fall, not the LSD kind. That was my attempt to make a small joke, I hope it worked. Maybe not. Awkward. Moving on.
There are many forms of the trip. My ultimate awkward trip is not the trip that leads to busting your face in the pavement, nor is it the trip and stumble. I feel most awkward when I trip up the stairs. This is the worst, not only because I look highly uncoordinated but because after living on this world for nearly two decades, I’m telling the world I haven’t mastered using the stairs. My former, more intensely awkward, version of myself would have looked around frantically thinking to myself, “Hopefully no one saw that.” However, after much experience with this awkward moment I realized the best way to handle this is by doing the exact opposite.
The best thing to do is just keep going up those stairs and even do a small chuckle. That way you’ve acknowledged your own mistake, and by hearing your laugh the people around you won’t have to ask if you’re hurt; they will know that you’re quite the opposite: you are cool, calm, and collected, and one trip won’t kill you.
Oh hey
Picture this. Person A is walking to class wearing headphones, jamming out to “Harlem Shake” by Baauer on the max volume. As the song ends Person A sees the entrance to the classroom and proceeds enter. Sounds like a pretty nice walk for Person A.
Well guess what?! I’m Person B. As Person A was in a “Harlem Shake” trance, I was hysterically waving my hand while loudly saying “Oh hey! What’s up?” to person B. I waved not once, not twice, but three times. And I was completely ignored as the mob of other students from the campus witnessed the whole thing. Well, that’s awkward. My hand then slowly retreats back down to its original position.
After multiple Person B tragedies I’ve decided to not look like my friends don’t like me anymore. I realized the key to this moment is to never break character. Instead of getting upset or embarrassed, I just casually put my hand down and make a simple smile. Doing this shows the other spectators that Person B was not who I was waving to, but the person behind Person B. Let them think that you were waving to Person C.
*Warning* There is not always a Person C, but just pretend there is. Even if you are waving to the invisible Person C across the street, it is better than looking like a fool.
Oh I wanna dance with somebody
Whether it is in college or after you graduate, there will be a time when you go to a dance party. It can be an amazing time when all your girls are dancing in a little circle, just letting loose. Then, the mating occurs. The hormonal young men across the room in their best party outfits are scoping the room looking for the right place to receive “the twerk.” Now, just who will they pick?
Well tonight they pick everyone but you. Now, don’t feel like you weren’t worthy. It just so happens that there wasn’t an extra guy for you. Now this can be awkward and it happens to everyone at least once. Including myself.
The best way to avoid feeling awkward or self-conscious is to keep dancing your butt off! Seriously, looking confident and showing that you don’t need a guy to have fun is the best way to avoid the awkward.
Over time I came to realize that something that is labeled as awkward is not really that bad. When I learned to embrace all of my awkwardness, my awkward moments became less embarrassing, but rather empowering. I’d rather be deemed “awkward” than normal anyway, because through all of our awkward quirks comes a uniqueness that normal people just don’t have.
Photo credit:
http://www.mediamarketjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/awkward-mtv-2011.jpg