When I walk down the hallway, one of the following things happens: I run into someone and proceed to mutter apologies as I walk away, or I drop something that I’m carrying and have to bend down to pick it up while a sea of people rush past me.
The first thing that comes to mind in these day-to-day occurrences of life?
Well, that was awkward.
The fact is, I am an awkward person.
You’re an awkward person.
We’re all awkward people.
There will always be situations where you have no choice but to whip out the awkward turtle hand gesture. It’s life.
Nothing can ever be comfortable because, then, you would have no funny stories.
It seems it is now more acceptable to be awkward.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m made fun of for being awkward a lot, but I make fun of myself, too.
I have accepted the fact that I am awkward.
I know that, at the end of the day, I will have an awkward story to tell to one of my friends.
Because, in my life, the awkward moments are never-ending.
For example, this past summer, I attended a journalism camp in Dallas with a group of newspaper kids.
On one of the days, there was a camp-sanctioned “rave” party with a disc jockey, lasers and some glow sticks. I dragged my fellow staffers along with me to the rave — all I wanted to do was dance.
At some point during the dance I looked up and saw someone crowd surfing.
For those of you who don’t know, I am a huge concert goer; therefore, I love crowd surfing.
I found the closest muscular guy next to me and asked him to lift me up. I laid on my back as people threw me to the next pair of hands. Then, I’m not really sure how, but I fell. The kind of fall that leaves you spinning.
And what do I do? Jump up, head still spinning and scream through a fit of giggles “I am okay!” People around me stared at me like I had done the stupidest thing all night — which, I guess, is kind of true.
Awkward.
But, let’s face it, life is awkward.
So embrace it.
Accept the fact that you will probably only feel comfortable when you’re sleeping. Unless you are someone who magically never faces an awkward encounter, then kudos to you.
But for the majority of people, know that someone is as awkward, if not more awkward than you are.
Sure people might make fun of you from time to time, but to be honest, being normal is overrated.