High school is usually four years that are looked upon with great fondness. For many, it is a time in their lives in which life-long friendships are formed, important lessons are learned, and new paths are taken. This four-year period in one’s life is often deeply impactful and holds a special place in their memories.

While the high school years are typically filled with love, laughter, and enjoyment, they can also include some not-so-great moments. Especially considering high schoolers are navigating through their teenage years, which are arguably among the most awkward years in one’s life, the chances of encountering some embarrassing moments are practically guaranteed. 

For myself, I experienced my most embarrassing high school moment during my sophomore year. I was one of the youngest students in my Algebra II class, as I was taking it my tenth-grade year while most of my classmates were juniors or seniors. When I was added to the class Snapchat group chat, I was utterly shocked. I was a stranger to my peers, so to somehow make it into the class group chat, I felt like I had found myself fitting in with the upperclassmen in my class.

The group chat had various functions — complaining about the difficulty of a homework assignment, organizing study groups, wishing each other good luck on a test — yet my time in the group chat was cut short. 

One day, I opened a Snapchat sent from one of my friends in which she sent an ugly face, so I, of course, responded with a, just as ugly, if not uglier face. I confidently pressed send but was met with the sending button pending to my math group chat. Immediately my heart dropped and, without even thinking, I just left the group chat. I was completely mortified, and while I never figured out if my classmates saw the photo, I decided it would be best if I kept to myself in math for the remainder of the year. 

Similar to myself, Patrick Song’s (12) most embarrassing high school memory took place during his sophomore year. Patrick reminisced on the moment, as he remembered an unfortunate run-in with a melting pot in Honors Chemistry. 

“One day we had a lab where we all worked with a melting pot. As my peers and I were working, I accidentally put a plastic container too close to the hot surface of the pot. An odd smell caught my attention, and that’s when I noticed that it was the smell of melting plastic. Students in the class took notice and started laughing. I’ve had better days.”

As for Kaitlyn Kame (12), she lived out her most embarrassing high school moment in her junior year. With over 1,500 attendees, Yorba Linda High School can definitely feel overpopulated at times. Passing period is among one of these times, as every student is leaving one class and traveling to their next at the exact same time. 

Kaitlyn found passing period to be no easy feat one day in her eleventh-grade year. As she recounts, she “was walking to lunch with [her] friend and it was super crowded between the passing period, and [she] fell down the stairs in front of everyone.”

Evidently, like everything in life, high school can be filled with embarrassing moments. You might experience shameful times, but the beauty of high school is that everyone is going through it too, and therefore everyone has an embarrassing story. It may feel like you are the biggest fool when you send an unflattering selfie to your math group chat, or burn a plastic container and get laughed at by your class, or fall down the stairs in front of your peers, but just take comfort in knowing everyone in high school has an equally embarrassing story.