Today is the first Wednesday of the month, when the…
…founded by Alex J Cavanaugh, blog about their hopes, dreams and fears. If you want to join this merry band of writers Click here to add your name to the list…
The awesome co-hosts for this month are; Stephen Tremp, Fundy Blue, MJ Fifield, Loni Townsend, Bish Denham, Susan Gourley, and Stephanie Faris!
So, this month I am revisiting one of the worst moments in my life. Obviously there are worse worst moments, and better worst moments, but this one was particularly public and has a learning point. (Which leads me to wonder if all worst moments have learning points, but I guess I’m digressing (as usual) and that’s a different post.)
Where was I? Oh yes…
I was 11 years old, and my school ran a mock election. A few groups of us had to put together political parties and create manifestos on how we’d improve the school.
The group I was in took it all far too seriously, and of course everyone voted for the group who promised a swimming pool and more holidays. (Even I voted for them; I didn’t realise I could vote for my own team).
I really didn’t have a clue.
But my worst moment was when I somehow volunteered to represent our group and be interviewed by our science teacher, (pretending to be Robin Day), in front of the whole school.
I was torn to shreds. I was completely unprepared and far too honest to be involved in politics. The whole thing was a complete recipe for disaster.
But what I’ve taken away from that (apart from to be careful what you volunteer for), is to be prepared. Do your homework, swot up, think about what you want to talk about!
That doesn’t mean that I can’t still royally mess up on occasion, but at least it’s not for want of trying.
Do you have a worst moment? Did you learn anything from it?
Books should be read...
Angela Wooldridge 
That sounds rough! I’m not one for politics myself, and I know I typically freeze when put on the spot. I probably wouldn’t have fared much better than you did.
I think my worst moment was being in the local Junior Miss competition, where I thought I might actually be able to compete with smart, beautiful girls. I watched the video afterward and I had made an embarrassment of myself. I hadn’t practiced the dance routine enough and you could see I was the only person out of step. Lesson learned: I don’t have a career in dancing…
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Owch! Have you re-watched it since? I’ll bet everyone else was watching only themselves and thought the same thing.
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Be Prepared! That’s the Boy Scout motto. We’re not all cut out for the interrogation, especially in the political field.
Mary at Play off the Page
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All of my worst moments taught me lessons I learned for life. I don’t talk about them much though. 🙂
Anna from elements of emaginette
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The sad thing is that I have many moments I could share here. But this lesson is actually quite timely for me as I prepare for my upcoming release. I needed to hear this!
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Yay! I was timely about something! Woo-hoo! 😉
Let me know if you need any butt kicking or nudges 😉
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Ooo,many of them. When I was in Junior High I was going to try out to be a twirler. Went through the whole thing preparation and dance required for the chance to try out. I had a mentor twirler–someone already on the squad. I went to all the practices. I was good. I knew I was good, but I was also slightly fat. I was scared I would be made fun of and laughed at. I had that happen in elementary school. I did everything I needed to do up to the moment of tryouts and then backed out.
The judges for picking the winners came to me and ask why did I not try out? I told them I thought I was too fat. They said no you were the best one in the bunch. We watched for you. They had been watching the practices every day.
They told me they would have picked me, but it was too late. Because I gave into my fear I lost an opportunity to do something I wanted really bad. It might have changed some roads and choices for my future. So yeah I learned if you don’t try you might lose out and more than expected.
Juneta @ Writer’s Gambit
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Nooo! I’m crying inside for your junior high self 😦
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You learned all that at 11? I’m still naive about politics at 35 then. I guess I really wish honesty was the best policy in politics.
I do believe my worst moments have been the best teachers.
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Nah – at 11 all I learned about was the humiliation, it took a few more years to put a positive spin on it 😉
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I did something called Academic Decathlon in high school. And part of AD was the public speaking portion. We had to give a prepared speech on any topic (I think mine was why life wasn’t fair) and then we had to do a two-minute talk on one of three topics that weren’t shown to us until we were in the room. I didn’t practice much; I thought I would be fine, that I could easily talk for two minutes on any subject. But it wasn’t until I stood before that panel of judges that I really realized how very long two minutes actually was.
It felt horrible at the time, but it did teach me the value of being prepared.
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I’ve been there too – in an oral exam & I’d revised the wrong stuff 😦
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Good on you for sharing that memory with us. We all have those moment that stick with us, but we can make the most of them, like you have, my finding the lesson there is in it (and I’m convinced there is always a lesson).
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Fortunately for us, we can learn from our worst moments and sometimes they stick better than the happy moments. Thanks for sharing that lesson.
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Like Loni, my awful moment involved dancing. My ballet class had beautiful recital tutus so our dance mistress had us sit on the stage as a backdrop while the littlest girls danced. She told us to not to sit on our feet, but I didn’t listen. When it was our turn to dance, my legs had fallen asleep. I stood up and immediately fell on my face. It was a hard way to learn to listen to instructions. My mother was so embarrassed that I had to change dance schools.
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Actually, come to think of it, I had a ballet moment too – it must be some kind of rite of passage
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Worst moment? There are a few…but I won’t bore you with the gory details.
All I’ll say is, I avoid public speaking because I clam up! I’ll leave the rest to your imagination…
Writer In Transit
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