by Brianne Nigro…

100305_laughI could fill a book with the copious amounts of embarrassing situations I’ve somehow managed to find myself in over the years. Everything from falling in to the nastiest of rivers in Toronto at my 13th birthday party in front of my childhood crush, to dangling from the side of a boat by my bikini as my whole family watched on laughing at me and taking pictures.

Believe me, I’ve been there, done that and unfortunately have the pictures to prove it.

These moments used to haunt me, something embarrassing would happen to me and my face would turn as red as a big ol’ tomato and I would try to find the nearest exit to do the inevitable walk of shame. I used to sit at night sometimes and wonder why everything seemed to happen to me and not to any of the popular, beautiful girls at school. They never got embarrassed it seemed.

It wasn’t until I was in my late teens, working at a hotel where things changed for me. I took a year off in between high school and university because like many people my age I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do and I didn’t want to waste $5,000 on a university tuition when I wasn’t sure what I wanted to take in the first place. (Which by the way I ended up doing the next year at university nevertheless.) So, I ended up taking a job I thought I would despise as a house keeper at a local ski resort. Yes, I was the girl who knocked on your door and politely asked…

“Housekeeping?”

I tried to stay under the radar at my new job, avoiding the other employees. All of them were oblivious to me except for one girl. She kept at me, telling me stories of her weekend, boyfriend and how she loved snowboarding, something I was interested in as well. She was the type of warm personality where people were immediately drawn to her, and soon enough I found myself looking forward to our coffee breaks and snowboarding after work.

I thought she had it all together; she seemed like the type of girl who did anyway. The more I hung out with her, the more I realized that this girl, who seemed to have it all together, was in fact just like me, except for one major difference. She laughed at herself.

One night after work we were snowboarding and she took a major wipe out resulting in a mouth full of snow. Instead of panicking she jumped right up laughing hysterically at how ridiculous she must have looked. As time wore on, her bubbly personality began to wear off on me and soon enough I had a mini-breakthrough. I was walking outside a very busy mall when I unfortunately slipped on some ice and ended up flat on my butt. I lay there for a second or two staring up at the sky in pain, but I eventually managed to get up, brushed off my butt and started to giggle. And you know what? It felt pretty good.

I’m not saying that I no longer find myself in embarrassing situations; I’ve just learned how to handle them differently which consequently resulted in better self esteem. Just a few months ago I walked out of a bathroom unaware of the fact that my skirt was tucked in to my underwear. But instead of making a bee-line for the door I calmly un-tucked it, gave a little sashay to the lookers on and continued on my way shaking my head and smiling.

About the Author:
Brianne is a 24 year old who is still trying to repair her relationship with her inner child. She still loves licking the bowl after making cookies, taking long naps and day dreaming. Her dying wish is for John Williams to do a score of music for a week of her life so she can walk around with her own personalized soundtrack playing in the background.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brianne_Nigro
http://EzineArticles.com/?Learning-to-Laugh-at-Yourself&id=3836554


Related posts:

  1. While I was Learning to Become God Note from Arlene: I recently met author Roxana Jones, who just won the 2011 Readers Favorite Award in the General Non Fiction category for her book “While I was Learning to Become God”. Here is my interview with her: Is any of “While I Was Learning To Become God” fiction? RJ: The story I present in [...]...
  2. Learning About Yourself Is the Best Way to Succeed in Relationships By Doron Gil, Ph.D. There are many ways by which you might be harming your relationships. Often you are not aware of them. You use them in a routine manner, on automatic pilot. They’ve become your pattern of thought and behaviour. Not being aware of this situation, when your relationship fails you don’t take [...]...
  3. Learning How to Communicate Properly By Dr. Joyce Knudsen The average person does not communicate well. Most communication is ineffective. Communication skills cannot be a substitute for authenticity. Caring, and understanding. They can help us express these qualities more effectively. Good people skills not only get you what you want, they will bring out the best in your relationships. There are virtually no [...]...
  4. The 6 Stages of Learning By Michelle L. Casto Have you ever stopped to consider how you know what you know? In reality, you think, say, and do what you do because of what you have learned. Obviously, there have been some good lessons, some not-so-good ones, and even some lessons you seem to keep re-learning. So what is going on when [...]...
  5. Learning How to Overcome Shyness By Chris Malone There’s a higher demand than ever for people wanting to learn how to overcome shyness. The growth of the digital frontier has been great for many reasons. And social networks like Facebook and Twitter have helped a lot of people forge a social life – but it’s also enabled a lot more people [...]...