Embarrassment
Down the Boards
Breath in… Bend your knees. Remain focused on the task at hand—keeping the mental game in check, while executing a routine that seems all too familiar.
Jeremy JamesPublished 3 years ago in ConfessionsRazor Burn
It’s 1996 and I’m about to start my last year of elementary school, at a new school, in a town to which I just moved. Some background: my mother had just separated from my dad after he had been carrying on with a woman named Colleen at local bars in town. Since my mom was cute, and still young, she didn’t have to stay single for very long; a family friend had set her up with a widower she was close with named Eddie. He ultimately became my step-father, but was first introduced to me as a lonely sea captain, who thought my mom was attractive, and would drink Diet Pepsi at our friend’s summer pool parties. They hit it off immediately, and he eventually invited us to move in with him and his teenage son Russell, just one town over. The ensuing 12 years were, in fact, the best years of my life, but they definitely didn’t start that way.
J. E. SullivanPublished 3 years ago in Confessions- Top Story - June 2021
Party Time!
Parties: An opportunity to stand around in uncomfortable shoes among strangers, wondering what you’re going to talk about and drinking too much to get over the awkwardness.
Fiona HamerPublished 3 years ago in Confessions Don't Miss Your Shot
Wanna hear a circus tale? Alrighty, here it is: “I was a simple teenager. A little bit off the rails and rebellious? Well yes. But in most respects, I wasn’t too mainstream or into binge drinking. I was, however, keen to order my first drink. As my 18th birthday approached I didn’t bother to organize a party as I already had all that I wanted. The perfect gifts from friends and family: a mini-fridge and a Nutri Bullet blender. I like food ok? Life was good. It was simple. I was content. The morning of my 18th was splendid. Brunch with the family? Check that off. Shopping for some nice clothes? Yes, sir, please. Keen for a simple meal, some free San Churros, and then a movie at home? I’m ready for that. Although some small part of me figured, why not go out to a pub with people? I do love people, and I’d get to order that first drink.
Anna HarrisonPublished 3 years ago in ConfessionsSay what?
I am a true migrant at heart. Any possible uncertainties a journey might present, I consider opportunities to experience something new.
Em SchuttePublished 3 years ago in ConfessionsMy Social Shock Confession
Yes! It happens. Sometimes students will feel like a misfit or an outsider in High School. In fact, it was in Junior High when those feelings of being an outsider and misfit hit me. At our school, the girls, who lived in town, were the popular girls, and the girls who lived in the rural area of our school district were considered the misfit, outsider, and unpopular ones
Babs IversonPublished 3 years ago in ConfessionsReflecting On My Failure
Author's note: This article was rejected in its first submission for "graphic content" This new and improved version is certified graphic content free and fully suitable for Vocal's audience of impressionable youths who would certainly have been horrified and offended at the original version. I have also cleaned up the language. Who needs all those nasty swear words anyway? Not me. No sir. Not me.
Everyday JunglistPublished 3 years ago in ConfessionsInvisible and Faceless
Reposted, with minor edits, from a January 25th, 2014 post on my personal blog Happy Occidents. "I am sorry, I can't help", she says sliding my tax forms across the table.
Adelheid WestPublished 3 years ago in ConfessionsUnplanned
I thought you were supposed to feel elation. The deepest form of love in the human experience. Beauty and magic. A biological miracle. But I didn’t feel any of those emotions. I felt fear. From the moment I watched Star Wars, and Padme died in childbirth, I quaked at the thought of ever falling pregnant. The thought of pushing an eight-pound baby out of my body made me sick to my stomach. I felt embarrassed. Growing up in a conservative Catholic household, pregnancy was supposed to happen strictly between husband and wife. If you weren’t bound by the sanctity of marriage, it was an abomination. Even my entirely pro-life father suggested abortion. Like he wanted me to get one. I didn’t. I felt alone. Though half of the world has the opportunity to go through this experience, I had no one to talk to about it. Between my parent’s disappointment and the fact that I was twenty-one and unmarried, no one understood why I would want to “give up my youth”. I didn’t seem like the type to ever have children. And I wasn’t. And I didn’t want to. I needed to.
Ashley LimaPublished 3 years ago in ConfessionsThe Outside
I will never forget the one summer with myself, I flew to Georgia. At first, I felt like I didn’t fit in because, after always being used to fitting in a certain way…. and always feeling accepted in… the was a new awakening!!!!! Having always been, “heavily supported,” I was thinking the day I arrived I’d be well taken care of! Not! It was a HUGE warning regarding my race, was my first impression?! At first I thought I was up against my own worst, “ enemy”!!! It was my cousins new fiancé Joey. The year was 2001. So I was visiting Georgia. Georgia is my home state supposively. I was born there. This was all a wrap when I went there one summer!!!!! I was eager and more than excited at first to see my cousins!! Plus my aunt and uncle. Everybody was one happy family again. The only Problem was the credentials and entitlement the fiancé was getting?! Fighting had occurred frequently between me and him. We hated one another’s company by a long shot. It was too way different backgrounds trying to settle in the middle, at the same time! What bothered me was left unsaid. Basically I was repping a city like lifestyle with a ton of “ghettoness,”and tainted expression smothering me which at the time led to The Country Lifestyle! I wasn’t excited about it one bit. We hated each other’s guts. I didn’t fit in because I was black, by now I could tell, it was because he was white, and in the South, and they I’ve learned don’t play that mess. I would get hung he’d always say. It would bother me…and toil inside of me a lot. Enraged in anger. As I hold on growing up in Spanaway Washington, which is country to me…I start to grow a tougher skin, but I realize by now he Joey was from a wholeness of avenue, which since then I come to terms with! It’s hard to do, but I put myself through understanding to get to that point. This being a time, I didn’t fit in!!!! It helped mme to see myself in a different light.Back then,…. I had young ghetto mentality I want to say… and a terrible poverty mindset. Not to justify how I fitted in,which still needs work, until this day,..I would change where I have lost views, a load of friends, but it was all for the better! Anyways back to not fitting in. I felt bad! Here it is this (newby) was getting attention that I was not getting????? I felt the pressure each time I encountered him. We hated each other’s guts and for the first time I felt out of place. I know now, but ( Joey) would say things to piss me off or make foolery out of me! Some of the summer…and my cousins redemptions were in return treating me I’ll,I felt change had occur, to look at things for the better! My cousin Nikki was awesome, and what started out being the worst summer and me having the bad feelings of not fitting in took its FULL toll on me! So, I ended up enjoying it, maybe even crushing on (Joey), it was the best summer ever, ever spent! What had went from wrestling matches between us two turnover for the better! The things that I’d never encountered like…. 4 wheelin, dancing with him, & taking memorable photos, grew our relationship to taps! We’re cool now, but before then we just wasn’t. Since then…I’ve had my full rounds about the South. It’s harder living down there , then up here in Washington State. Every state has an exciting thing about it. My cousin Nikki and Joey, now have kids and I believe he is to this day, trying to become a better man. For me I am working on retiring, but leaving that door open for better new and improved beginnings.
Rachael FrazierPublished 3 years ago in ConfessionsFoot-in-Mouth Disease
I was diagnosed with the foot-in-mouth disease as a toddler. While no one is exactly sure what the root causes are for this illness, parental experts speculate that it may be genetic. Perhaps passed down by a garrulous great-grandfather or a chatty grandmother, the child is compared to when the disorder rears its ugly head. What exactly is foot-in-mouth disease? Well, let me break it down for you.
Miss WalkerPublished 3 years ago in Confessions9 Years Long Ballet
Social embarrassment is basically my cardio at this point. Just the other day, I fully introduced myself to a random guy at work. I assumed he was doing a trial shift, so I went: "Hi, I'm Marcel. It's so nice to meet you! What's your name?" The poor guy looked at me a bit terrified. When I realized he was a stranger about to pick up some carton boxes, I cringed my way up the stairs in silence. But that is nothing!
Marcel GrabowieckiPublished 3 years ago in Confessions