You’ve done it again. You’ve managed to embarrass yourself in a lecture hall full of people. This is the end; there’s no coming back from this moment. Newsflash: these thoughts are all hogwash! There are plenty of other college students who have been mortified by something they did on campus. And to prove it, we’ve asked some students to share their most embarrassing debacles. Sit back, grab some popcorn, and prepare for a few hearty laughs.
The Zombie Apocalypse
“One time my toe was broken, and it took me thirty minutes to get from my Spanish class to my geology class. I ended up being twenty minutes late to my exam, and I limped in late in front of a lecture hall of two hundred people. They all looked up at me while I was dragging my foot like I was a zombie. I guess I kind of looked like a zombie. It was so embarrassing.”
-Sydney, Senior
Pity Chords
“I took a music class for the non-musically-inclined people, and for my final exam, I had to play and sing a guitar solo. I chose ‘Radioactive’ by Imagine Dragons, and halfway through, I froze up and attempted to play the right chord for at least 30 seconds. My dreams of being a star were crushed. Then the class told me to restart, and they sang with me out of pity. I will never forget that sound.”
-Brady, Senior
Third Time’s the Charm
“When I first went to college, I didn’t go to any of the orientations or anything like that. So on my first day, I went through two classes that weren’t even mine. It ended up being halfway through the third class before the professor told me I didn’t belong there.”
-Travis, Sophomore
Rap Game Weak
“I would say I’m pretty good at rapping; I’m able to freestyle, and I’ve recorded some songs with my brother. So during freshman orientation, I got caught up in ‘freestyling’ on campus. I’d done all my personal raps already, and a big group of people gathered around to hear me rap. So, I thought, ‘Let me just rap this bit from an old Twenty One Pilots song. No one will know the difference.’ So I did. And then someone goes, ‘Wait, that’s a Twenty One Pilots song.’ And everyone was like, ‘Oh,’ and walked away.”
-Reagan, Sophomore
The Popcorn Guy
“My second week on campus, I burned a bag of popcorn in the microwave and set all the fire alarms off in my dorm. I propped my front door open for several days to get the smoke and smell out, and I got to know all my neighbors pretty well that way. However, for about the next 3 weeks, the entire dorm smelled of burned butter, and I became known as ‘The Popcorn Guy’.”
-Garrett, Senior
Double Whammy
“My first day of sophomore year, I straight up stuck my hand out and shook hands with my new company commander shouting in front of all the new cadets, ‘HOWDY, MR. EARLY!’ He told me that I didn’t have to yell anymore since I wasn’t a freshman. Also, I found out his name was Mr. Cole, not Mr. Early. Double whammy.”
-Austin, Junior
Rainy Day
“When it was raining really hard one day, while I was on my way to class, I went to step up onto the curb off of the street. I started to fall, but I thought I could run and catch myself to find some grounding. All that happened was I did a full sprint into the bushes and fell flat on my face. I was absolutely soaked and covered in mud. It was during a passing period, so thousands of people were walking around and saw it.”
-Travis, Sophomore
Never Forget the Towel
“During my freshman year, I lived in a dorm that had a community bathroom. I got up early to shower before class, and no one was usually in there at that time. After I showered, I realized that I forgot my towel. I didn’t want to put my clothes back on because they were dirty, so I got out of the shower with only my flip flops I wore in the shower. I thought to myself ‘Okay, I’ll just run back to my room and it will be fine.’ When I opened the door, there was someone standing there. He was shocked, and we made really awkward eye contact before I sprinted back to my room naked.”
-Caleb, Senior
Who Farted?
“One time I was sitting in class, minding my own business when I accidentally farted super loud. So loud that everyone turned around to see who it was. I also turned my head to pretend that it wasn’t me, but I was sitting in the back row and hit my face on the wall behind me.”
-Liz, Senior
Plz Help
“When I was a freshman, I had this awful habit of leaving my keys in the door when I’d let myself into my dorm room. One weekend, my roommate went home and I had the room all to myself. Before bed, I dead-bolted the door thinking I was being all secure and responsible. The next morning, when I jiggled the handle to leave my room, it wouldn’t budge. It turned out that I had locked myself INSIDE my room. My keys were still in the handle on the other side! Looking through the peephole, I saw two boys on my floor passing down the hall and tried to discreetly murmur, “Drew? Dustin? Help?” After letting me out (and laughing at my expense), I ran into them and the entire club hockey team at breakfast when one kid stood up and hollered, ‘THAT’S THE GIRL WHO LOCKED HERSELF IN HER ROOM!’ #mortified.”
-Caitlin, Senior
It’s Fine, I’m Fine
“One time when I was going to class, I was walking down the stairs and dropped ALL of my books. All of them. Scattered. Everywhere. It wouldn’t have been that big of a deal except my arm was broken, and no one stopped to help me. It took me 30 minutes to gather them together again.”
-Cassidy, Senior
Forks on the Left
“In the dining halls we have three different bins at the exit – one for compost, one for trash, and one where you throw in your cutlery. For some reason, they had changed the order of the bins, and although they had marked it pretty clearly, I wasn’t paying attention. In my usual rush to get to class, I walked up, emptied my plate into the cutlery basket, threw my cutlery in the trash, and put my plate down, as the three people behind me just stared in disbelief. When I saw the expression on their faces, I realized what I had done, froze for a second with an embarrassed look on my face, and then just ran off as if nothing had happened, wondering how I could have been so stupid.”
-Theo, Junior
Awkward Hug
“I had one of my least favorite professors during the first semester of sophomore year. He was a very tough grader and generally unfriendly. At the end of the semester, I got very sick and couldn’t make it to the final class period, so he had me deliver my final paper to his mailbox before I flew home for Christmas. As I was reading the names on all of the mailboxes trying to find his, he walked around the corner, raising his arms as if to say, “You’re here!” However, I misinterpreted the gesture as an invitation for a hug and went right in. Needless to say, every time I saw him around campus over the next few years, I fled in the opposite direction!”
-Julia, Senior