The day I was the laughing stock in gym class

This particular challenge is bringing back cringe-worthy memories that I had not thought about in decades. Today I am sharing 3 incidents related to PE class where I ended up the goat. The first one was during 4th grade when the class went outside to play kickball. I had never played this game before and if the rules were given to the class I guess I was not paying attention. We were on a field and somehow it was my turn to kick the ball. I kicked at the ball and my foot missed. I felt like Charlie Brown when Lucy pulled the football out from under him.

What made it worse was how the other students reacted. They yelled at me and called me names and the gym teacher said not a word. I was so humiliated I felt like crying. Perhaps if I had exhibited some confidence and laughed at myself, the other kids would have laughed with me and it would have been a joke. Instead, I felt like the village idiot and they laughed at me. There is nothing worse than being the butt of jokes and I should know because this happened to me on at least two more occasions.

The following year in the spring near the end of 5th grade we had PE outside. The gym teacher had us to play a game called around the world. We began by standing at the left side of the basketball goal at the 10:00 mark. You had to throw the ball in and if you made the basket, you moved to the halfway point. If you made a basket from there you moved to the next marker which was at the 2:00 spot if you were looking at a clock. After that, you could go back to the classroom early, which was a great incentive.

This was a class of 32 students and everyone got the ball in at all 4 positions except me. I was still there in the first spot when the bell rang at 3:00. I thought about Charlie Brown and like the Peanuts character, I wondered why I was always the goat? I listened to the instructions and watched what the other students did but it seemed my delivery and execution always fell short. I know someone is reading this and calling me all kinds of names but that's OK it's probably nothing I have not heard before.

My third and final big time humiliation in gym class came in the 9th grade. I was very shy and insecure during my freshman year of high school. There were so many new faces and I had to learn a different school and it was all overwhelming. During PE we shared the gym with a class of juniors which I absolutely hated. The first time we played basketball I made an absolute fool of myself. I had seen this game on television but had absolutely no training on how to play. In the neighborhood, we only had one basket and I had not been formally introduced to the rules of the sport.

We were placed on two teams and I tried my best to keep up but I was feeling pretty paranoid and wished I could go to my next class. Someone threw the ball to me and I began dribbling down the court and threw the ball into the basket. I heard a tremendous roar of laughter and was not sure what was going on until I was told that I had scored for the other team. I had gone the wrong way and thrown the ball in the wrong basket. I know there are people laughing at this but I share it because I was clueless as a teen and all I needed was a little more instruction.

In each of these incidents, I felt like I was thrown to the wolves and I was not properly trained. When I got on the school bus the afternoon after my unfortunate situation, two juniors named Beverly and Judy told everyone on the school bus what had happened and again I was the goat, the village idiot, the fool. I can look back and laugh now but back then I felt as if I were the only person who made such mistakes and I had lots of people who made sure to embarrass me by telling me every single day.