My Most Embarrassing Moment

I’m sure everyone has experienced at least once in their life, that cheek burning, stomach knotting, humiliating, wish the ground would swallow you up embarrassing moment. I have, several times, but my most embarrassing episode occurred last July, at Restoration Acres in Ohio, while we were attending Hillsboro Family Camp.

Fun after the evening session

We have been going to Hillsboro Family Camp for the past several years. It is a week in the summer we all look forward to with anticipation. This year was no different, except that we all felt an added bit of nervous excitement on account of the fact that we had been asked to sing a fifteen-minute evening concert for one of their sessions. With around fifteen hundred people in attendance, this would be our biggest event yet!

After a full two and a half days rolled by in Ohio, the time came for us to perform. It was a scene of energetic bustling in our camper as seven o’ clock approached Tuesday evening. Hair fixed, clothes changed, instruments checked, brief inspection of everyone, and we felt we were ready. All dressed in black, white, or gray, we walked up to the pavilion where we were to sing. I thought to myself how nice we all looked and hoped that our songs would glorify God as well as encourage and uplift those who heard us.

Pre-concert practice in the camper

We took our seats at the side of the stage and after the introductions and some opening words, we filed up the stairs, and stepped into our places. An intro was played, and our concert had begun. I don’t remember much of what happened during those fifteen minutes, for it always feels like a dream to me after I’ve been on stage. So, after the applause died down, we placed our instruments back in their cases and filed slowly around the pavilion back to our normal seats, saying a quiet thank you to people who encouraged us with their kind words.

I remember sitting down again, then standing up to take my sleeping nephew out of his sister’s tired arms. It was at that moment I realized, well Jayla realized, that my dress was unzipped! My dress’ zipper was not in the typical location a zipper is normally, that is down the back. It was placed running down my side underneath my left arm. As I grabbed Nathaniel, Jayla could see a one-to-two-foot section of my left side, along with undergarment unmentionables, bared for the quiet assessment of public eyes! Immediately I felt my face turn hot and my stomach begin to churn. My symptoms turned infinitely worse when a friend came up, relieved to find we had corrected the problem she had noticed just seconds earlier!

A worn-out Gideon 

Zip!!! As I sat down, the full import of Jayla’s disastrous discovery fell on me. I had, from the moment we walked into the pavilion, to the time we took our places on stage, during our entire performance, while we walked around the entire crowd to our normal seats at the back of the pavilion, smiling and waving to friends the entire way, been exposing two feet of my left side to the general view! I was humiliated!

My feelings started to abate, only after I had talked to several friends and realized that none of them had noticed anything. I still couldn’t believe it though; Even now, I get flushed just thinking about it! I am sure I will never forget my most embarrassing moment yet, and I hope it stays just that, my most embarrassing moment. May I never have to relive another of those kinds of episodes, even if they do make humorous stories years down the road for future listeners!

~Halayah