Jonathan Meyer.

Over the last few weeks, some embarrassing memories have come up a few times. Now it’s easy to hold a lot of these scenarios in your heart with a little bit of animosity but quite honestly a lot of these stories are hilarious. What better way to deal with embarrassment than publish it for everyone to read. I might regret this in five years, but oh well it’ll be funny!

In about third or fourth grade, I vividly remember a day at recess. Nothing was super out of the ordinary. I was going about the things a normal elementary school student would be. I like to make my rounds and talk to all the people often including the recess supervisors. That day as I stood on the black top and finished a conversation, I was asked point blank if I was wearing my sister’s jeans.

No, I didn’t recall wearing jeans that weren’t mine but the hearts that outlined the back pocket and a slightly tighter fit to the pants said otherwise. Part of me remembers trying to fight it a little bit and you’re shaking off the idea that someone told me I’m wearing girls jeans. Quite honestly, I don’t think I noticed a difference and went about my day.

I know I’ve outlined a few times my adverse encounters with mice. While I really don’t want to relitigate those issues, I will direct you to find that story if you’re so inclined. Let’s just say it included a toaster, a baseball bat, the appearance of a mouse, quite a bit of crying, and taking off a majority of my clothes in the middle of the yard as I screamed about a mouse. As much as you might think that happened a few weeks ago, that specific instance was while I was still in grade school. Not my best moment, but it certainly is funny to think about.

Something else from around the same period of time was in fourth grade as a part of a class wide drawing or coloring contest. Well, the specifics are a little bit hazy, I definitely remember being upset and disappointed that my artwork didn’t get passed on to the next level. For some portion of the day, we traveled to another teacher’s classroom and I remember having a full on meltdown. Knowing what I know now and understanding my strengths artistically, it makes sense why I would meltdown: my artwork was not very good! If I would’ve been that teacher, who might I add didn’t really know me, maybe a question I could’ve asked was: have you considered it just wasn’t good enough? Well, maybe that’s not the right approach and it’s a good thing. That I’ve learned from that moment. My expectations and sense of reality have gotten a little bit better from that point.

In a roundabout way these embarrassing and funny stories to tell have definitely played a role in shaping who we are today. Whatever you do, don’t ask my parents about any of these things. They are both way too willing to share. Just take my word, these are the only embarrassing things that have happened to me!

Until the next embarrassing story, I’m Just Jonathan.