Sometimes, we’re just walking down the street minding our own business when suddenly, all we can think about is that one embarrassing thing from our past. Whether it was a romantic faux pas, an awkward joke, or a foolish misconception, we can’t quite seem to let go of it. Wincing yet? Well then, keep reading these Reddit users’ “Years Later, I Still Cringe” stories.
1. Turn the Other Cheek
When I walked down the aisle at my wedding, I was so nervous and focused on not tripping that I made an enormous mistake. I did not even acknowledge my dad. I didn't realize this until I saw the video my aunt had made for me. You can see my dad lean in to give me a kiss on the cheek, but I just keep walking. He kind of shrugs and then goes to sit down.
It's been 18 years, and this still flashes through my head when I'm trying to fall asleep.
2. Capital Punishment
In my fourth grade classroom, we were having a face-off between students on who could name the capital of whichever state our teacher named. I had been on a roll, getting a few correct in a row. Then the teacher says “Kentucky.” With all of the enthusiasm (and seriousness) in the world, I screamed “FRANK FART.”
Everyone was dying laughing except for me. Looking back, it cracks me up that I was so upset about it.
3. No Need to Get Catty
I went to Dairy Queen with my daughter. She brought along her kitten. The cute girl at the walk-up window asked my daughter what the kitten's name was. "Princess" was the response. Smiling and feebly attempting to make conversation, I made the dumbest comment ever. I said "Today" to indicate that my daughter changed the cat's name frequently.
I got a dirty look and the girl left the window to go make whatever cold treat we had ordered. It wasn't until later, on the walk home, that I realized that she thought I was telling her to hurry the heck up and make my order. I was so mortified, but there was nothing I could do about it. Still haunts me years later for some reason.
4. Be Mine
I was in the fourth grade and it was Valentine’s Day. I was the new kid in school and this one boy had been picking on me all year. My 10-year-old self was very non-confrontational, so I wrote a paragraph on the back of this nerd's valentine explaining that I don’t like it when he’s mean to me, and I don’t understand why he has to be.
He couldn’t read my handwriting and brought it to the teacher, who made me read it aloud to both of them. I think about that day every day of my life. He even ended up finding me online and contacting me to apologize a few years ago, but all I can think of is the cringe. I’ll never live it down in my mind.
5. Odd Man out
I was visiting Portland for a wedding that lined up with my birthday as well. We went out to celebrate and finished the night at a karaoke bar. Realizing I'm too drunk to sing, I pick “My Name Is” by Eminem as my song to perform. There are two versions of that song. One is the original release, the other tamed down, which you most commonly hear today.
The woman controlling the music put on the original, and off I went. One of the lines at the end is "running over lesbians in a spaceship while they screamin' at me lets just be friends." I finish the song, and I immediately know something has gone terribly wrong. I'm met by applause from my friends and one other table. The rest of the place is silent.
The DJ goes, "Nice job! Don't know if it was the best choice for gay women's night though." And at that moment, I wanted to leave my skin.
6. On Thin Ice
That time I was trying to get to the school bus and the sidewalk was icy, so I slipped and fell really hard on my butt. The kids on the bus laughed at me, so I chose to sit there with my head down, wishing I could disappear, while the bus drove away and I walked a mile home, all just to avoid the embarrassment of seeing them again.
7. Rules Are Rules
In seventh grade, a cute girl asked me to sit next to her. I said my mom won’t let me sit next to girls. My mom said no such thing.
8. Language Barrier
When I was in the fourth grade, I lived in the middle of nowhere and there were practically no minorities, just white country people. This Mexican family had just moved in and could barely speak any English, and I befriended one of the kids my age in school. He came over to my place and we were both joking around about his bad English, just doing what kids do.
I would pretend to speak with his accent and then he would copy and it was silly, stupid, and innocent. My mom told me I was being really inconsiderate and how uncool it was to make fun of someone for not being able to speak English. I felt terrible. The next day at school, my friend came up to me and started joking with me again, but I gave him a cold-hearted response.
I just shook my head and looked down at my desk in embarrassment. He had no idea what was wrong and I was too young and dumb to be able to explain my behavior to him. As I grew older, I spent probably 20 years thinking about that day. It bothered me that I was friendly one day and then without explaining anything just stopped talking to him out of embarrassment.
I felt really bad about it for a long time and often laid awake at night thinking about it. I ended up finding him on Facebook about a year ago and we friended each other, so I told him how bad I felt about it and apologized. He just laughed it off and said it was no big deal and he was still really thankful to find someone as friendly as me when he didn't know anyone here.
He said he figured my mom had said something to me about it and it never bothered him. I don't know if maybe he was just being nice to me or not, but it was such a relief to hear it. It really felt like a weight had been lifted off of me.
9. Caught Red-Handed
I was visiting my cousin about four months ago and we didn't have the same greeting handshake. So it was like that really weird thing with your hands where you end up in some super awkward handshake. Last night I thought about this for like 20 minutes and blamed myself.
10. Dinner Dud
At junior prom, I blurted out during dinner to my date, "I'm so bored" and I have NO idea why it came out of my mouth. I'm pretty well-mannered and quiet. I forget how I tried to play it off, but I felt so bad.
11. Missed Connections
I was sitting in a small group of friends in school, and my crush (literally the love of my life at that point) admitted she liked me. It was the happiest moment of my entire life. So naturally, I gave the worst reply possible. I said "Ew." In front of everyone. This was second grade, and I still think about it weekly.
12. Super Snub
For most of my education, I went to public school. Like most kids, I was socially awkward. For high school, I received an academic scholarship to a private Catholic school. It was a really big deal for my family, but I didn't know anyone at the new school. Between an odd combination of academics, sports, and the tail-end of puberty, I became very popular in this new school.
I wasn't used to the attention and it definitely got to my teenage head. Nearly all of my social circles became around the new school and not with my old local friends. I'm in my junior year, I head to a McDonald’s for lunch with a few friends from the new school. Working the counter, I see a girl who I used to go to public school, who I used to have a crush on.
She just lit up when she saw me—and I committed a terribly cruel act. She was so excited, and I...I was an awful teenager and I just ignored her. I pretended I didn't recognize her. She looked so deflated when I didn't acknowledge her. Note this was the 90s. My family moved a few times after that. I settled down in a different part of the country after university, and I never made it back to that town.
I've relived that moment for years now. Fast forward to one of those nights when I relive that moment, and I decide to look her up on Facebook to apologize. That's when I made a horrific discovery. I find out she died 10 years ago in an auto accident. Since I found out her fate, I feel even more awful about that moment.
13. No Laughing Matter
It wasn't me, it was my neighbor. My neighbor is morbidly obese and my mom is Korean, and they joke with each other about it. My neighbor makes racist comments to my mom, she makes fun of my neighbor's weight. Good or bad, it's just part of their friendship. They often did it in public too, but it was always obvious when they were standing next to each other that it was an inside joke.
At one point, my neighbor was out with her husband (they're both white). She was at a check-out counter when she made a fatal error. She blithely remarked about all the darn Koreans taking over the region. The check-out lady just stares at her. Then the husband leaned over and said, "It's not as funny when [Dragonmeme's mom] isn't standing next to you."
Cue my horrified neighbor desperately trying to explain that she wasn't a racist, that it's an inside joke. "My friend is Korean!" which of course just made her look worse. My mom lost it when she heard the story.
14. Lending a Hand
Freshman year of high school. It was one of those days before school starts and you meet your teacher and your parents are there. My teacher was handing me a piece of paper and I didn't see the paper, so I shook his hand. He said "oh" and my mom said "Ummm?" and I panicked and said, "I just wanted to be polite!" So I still want to die when I think of that…
15. Don’t Laugh It off
When I was in fifth grade, our teacher said a joke in front of the class and everyone laughed, including myself. After the laughter died down, a girl looked up at me and made a comment so hurtful, it's stuck with me for years. She said, "You have a really darn disgusting laugh, ew." I became so self-conscious about laughter since that specific, day, and after years I still have trouble actually laughing.
16. Life Story
When I was 11, it was my first day at a new school and all the other students were also new. The Maths teacher started our first class by asking each of us about our educational background. What school we came from, what they taught in our last year's Maths class, etc. Just trying to get a general idea of what kind of students he was dealing with.
Thing is, I was so nervous that I spaced out for a bit and got lost in my over-thinking mind, so I didn't hear the teacher's questions to my classmates. When it got to my turn, the teacher just said, "Now tell me about you," assuming I understood what kind of information he was expecting. I just went straight into a monologue.
It started with "So I was born in the South Zone of the city, but my mom decided to move to our current neighborhood a few months after divorcing my dad..." And went on and on, giving some very specific details about my short life. Everyone had a really confused look on their faces, and as soon as I realized the teacher was also completely lost, I stopped talking and went instantly red.
The teacher then said, "That's all really great, but I was only interested in what happened last year, not the last 10..." and everyone started laughing. Next day, nobody remembered it anymore, but 12 years later it still comes to mind in pretty random moments.
17. And Now for Something Completely Different
My most mortifying memory that still makes my face hot and turns my brain inside out at a moment's notice is this: First-ever public speaking class speech in college. The topic was to let the class get to know something about you, so of course, I ended up telling everyone my darkest secret. It was most intense speech about my parents dying while I was in high school.
And I went first because the teacher knew I was the most introverted. The next person talked about why they liked skiing. And that's when I started to realize what I had done...I still want to barf for a second when I think about it. I'll also never forget that I got a C on the speech.
18. Next Stop: Humiliation
This happened back when I was in sixth or seventh grade. Me and a couple of my friends were browsing the neighborhood our school was in after the school day was over. We happen onto a bus stop with a couple of girls seemingly our age. We stopped and tried to chat them up, but their bus came soon after and they had to go.
We see their bus stop at a traffic light not 20 meters away and one of us says, "Let's run to the next stop.” Nobody thought to ask, "Then what?" and off we were, sprinting madly behind the bus. Surprisingly enough, we somehow made it to the next stop just as the bus was arriving. Then the doors opened, the girls sat there giggling and...We did nothing.
Literally. I even remember it like the bus driver held the doors a bit longer. We just sat there, trying to catch our breaths as my lungs burned. And then the doors closed and the bus went off to the next stop. And none of us said anything. We just walked it off, went on to the next stupid thing we would do. This still haunts me.
19. Stranger Danger
Last year, I saw a four-year-old kid with his father. The kid wants to go to X place, but the father wants to go home, so the kid was crying and slowly running to X place. All the while, the father was calling him to return right this instant. EXTREMELY dumb me said to the father "If you want, I'll go get him for you."
There was a silence, and then a woman nearby started laughing. The father just gave me a look and said “No…thanks.”
20. Tell Us How You Really Feel
When I was in high school, we had to give in feedback forms about our teachers. I was just going to submit mine totally blank, but the teacher in charge at the time told me that I had to write something for every teacher. Stupidly, I decided to be completely honest and to write exactly what I thought of them. It was all nice, except for one teacher's, which was just “Miss is very scary but she's a good teacher.”
I meant both of those, but it didn't matter. The teacher's response was chilling. She was seriously hurt by it, although she pretended it was no big deal at first. Then as the weeks went by, she would mention it once a week, gradually seeming more and more upset. Until one day, when another student mentioned being scared to ask her about something, she shouted at him for an entire period.
She also mentioned me a bunch, saying she would never forget what I said but could forgive me. Anyways, she was the type of teacher to really consider her students to be her own kids, and I guess me being scared of her hurt her. I do regret that.
21. The Follies of Youth
I was like six and didn't understand acne. Being all six years old and innocent, I asked my mom why my older teenaged brother always had pizza on his face...right in front of him. Worst of all, he cried.
22. The Dance of Death
I was around 15 years old and having a complete breakdown in all aspects of life. My mother had died suddenly; I had an untreated mental illness and was self-harming a lot for years and no one was listening; my dad was understandably a wreck; school fell to the wayside. I was barely going and intending on dropping out. I couldn't do anything, let alone it all.
There was a high school dance. I was desperate to have some fun and pretty much have this be the highlight before I left. Though I failed at communicating this, I really wanted a friend to dance with me and our other friends, but she was awkwardly sitting alone. So I took it way too far. I pushed her too hard and made her cry.
I couldn't see through my own stuff to see how bad of a position I put her in. All I could see was my world collapsing. We never spoke again. She went from my best friend to nothing in one night. That was 15 years ago, and I still feel awful. Hindsight is always 20/20 as they say.
23. Playing Hard to Get
A couple of years ago, I was at the drive-up window at my bank. When the transaction was finished, I started to raise my hand to wave goodbye to the teller, but instead of waving, I started to flip him off! It happened completely subconsciously. I don't think I was able to stop it in time because he had a shocked look on his face.
I eventually apologized, but I still feel horrible shame over it. Every time I see him, the shame comes back. Plus, now I have a crush on him.
24. Sick Burn
I was in fifth grade or so and I was sitting in class with a couple of classmates. We were talking about Weird Al songs we liked. This one girl asked, "Have you heard (some Weird Al song)?" and I followed with, "Have you ever heard I'm So Sick of You?" Well, I guess she hadn't heard because she looked immediately down at the desk, sort of somber.
The dude did a little," hohooo." Then I finally realized the awful truth. I guess they thought I was telling this girl I was so sick of her...I had no clue at the time though, so I just let it ride. Still feel bad about that one.
25. Can’t Buy Me Love
A girl my buddy had given my number to wouldn't leave me alone. Calls at all hours, follows me in the halls, tries to sit with me at lunch, all of that. I blocked her number and avoided her at all costs. One day at lunch she sees me, beams at me, and makes a beeline right for me. I'm with all my buddies, and she stands there looking at me and waiting for me to ask her to sit down.
Instead, the first thing to pop into my head was to grab a quarter in my pocket, stand up, show it to her, and at the top of my voice yell, "HERE'S A QUARTER, GO BUY YOURSELF SOME FRIENDS!" I then bounce it off the table at her and it hits her square in the forehead, and all she does is stand there while the entire lunchroom explodes in laughter.
She runs out with tears streaming down her face. I calmly sit down and continue eating. It was so out of character for me (skinny, introverted band nerd) that it was the talk of the school for weeks about how brutal that was. I still think about it and it's been 25 years, and I feel totally ashamed about it all now.
26. Holier Than Thou
I was eight and I was at church in the kid's service, and they always picked a kid to participate. They even usually get a prize after. That day, they chose by asking us why we should get to go up, and I literally said, “My aunt works here so I deserve it.” I was an entitled little brat. Every time I remember it, I die a little inside.
27. Chatting Her up
I had a crush on this one girl all throughout elementary school. I'm talking the only girl I liked and always wanted to be with her. Well, once I got into sixth grade, I decided to make my move. My bright idea was utterly cringeworthy. I just randomly emailed her via our school emails. Just random stuff out of the ordinary.
I hate myself. Even worse, I never really talked to her before and was (still am kinda) an introvert. Oh, and one more thing. Her younger brother found out and told me she was with a guy. I thanked him and cried for hours when I got home. And that's the story about how I became socially awkward.
28. No Tomcats Allowed
In year one or two, I had a bigger vocabulary than most of the other kids, and I'd just discovered the word “feline.” We were (I think) talking about what it'd be like to transform into animals, and I wanted to say that it'd be cool to turn into a feline, because I loved cats. What came out was, "I really want to turn into a female!"
29. Monkey on Your Back
I went swimming with a group of friends as a kid to the local pool. I was probably 11. A girl in the friend group jumped on my back while I was underwater. She was just being playful, but it freaked me out because I was coming up and already short of breath. Still, I played if off, trying to be cool. An hour later, I was describing what happened to my other friend.
I explained: “and then I felt this big fat weight on me and I couldn’t breathe.” But I didn't realize one crucial detail. The girl was behind me. She burst into tears and ran home crying. I have never felt so small. I remember that moment and still feel terrible 20 years later. I learned at that moment that it’s important to choose my words. I wanted to describe how I felt being underwater and scared, but I didn’t have a developed way to articulate it.
Because I used those words, she became the object of the story. It became about her fatness rather than about my fear. I didn’t mean to call her fat, but I did. And to any bystander or observer, they would justly see me as a bully.
30. Friends Without Benefits
When I was 17, I worked at a CVS. One of my coworkers was a guy my age who went to a different school. He was really cute, but he had a girlfriend who was away at college, and besides, I was in no position to date. Meanwhile, ThE lOvE oF mY lIfE had broken up with me, but I didn't want him to know how much he had hurt me, so I was determined to have a date to the homecoming dance.
I thought of my co-worker who was good looking and because he went to another school, no one would have to know my love life was in the toilet and I had to have a friend take me to the dance. I asked him if he'd go with me, as friends, but somehow the wires got crossed and he thought I was actually asking him out.
After work one day, he asked if he could talk to me and he went into this long speech about how he has a girlfriend and he loves her very much and he can't disrespect her by going to the dance with me. All of that was fine—I wasn't mad or anything—except I'm a stress-laugher, and it struck me as funny that he thought I wanted to date him.
Especially when the reality was that I didn't want to date anyone except ThE lOvE oF mY lIfE. Of course, all of that is difficult to explain as a mature adult, let alone a 17-year-old girl, so I just laughed. I think about it sometimes and think to myself about how ridiculous the whole situation was. I wish I could go back and explain it to my ex-co-worker...but I can't even remember his first name.
31. Driving Me Crazy
I was raised very religious. My grandparents are very good people, but they occasionally make a comment about racial stereotypes. When I was in second grade, I heard my grandpa say something about Indian people not driving well and I didn’t question it. Being the edgy kid I was, I wanted to sound cool or something and repeat it.
I did it in the worst way imaginable: By loudly answering a teacher’s question in Sunday school with something containing the words “Asian people can’t drive.” Immediately after, I accidentally made eye contact with the Asian girl in my class who was one of the kindest, sweetest people I’ve ever met. Even not realizing the gravity of my statement, I still saw the look on her face and felt awful.
32. Walk It off
I was discussing a recent surgery I had at work to a bunch of people, including a lady with spina bifida who lives in a wheelchair. I specifically was talking about how annoyed I was by not being able to walk for three weeks. I revisit that one a lot.
33. Eat Your Words
Back in sixth grade, a new girl came to our school. We were making introductions at lunch and getting along fairly well. She lived in my neighborhood so I saw her and her brother get on the bus in the morning. Her brother was a bit shy on the bus and didn't talk to anyone. I saw him at lunch on my way to my table to eat and waved.
He did a weird head bob thing and smiled. I thought he was being a goof, so I laughed and turned to the new girl and said, "What’s with your brother, why is he acting mentally challenged?” Except, sorry to say, I used the bad word for that. Her response stunned me. She broke out into tears and ran away.
That's when my friend turned to me and said, "What the heck is wrong with you?" and ran after the new girl. Turns out, her brother is actually mentally challenged.
34. Kara-Oh No
Between sophomore and junior year in high school, I went on a summer study program. I was an awkward teen (who wasn't?) but I thought at the time I was the only awkward one of the bunch. There was a "competition" and I wanted to sing in it. I can't sing. I chose a song to sing that was a classic, but the version they put on was a remix.
I couldn't keep the timing or anything. So on stage, I made a signal to cut the music and walked off stage after performing poorly, right in the middle of the song.
35. Sister Act
I stole my sister's boyfriend when I was 16. I'm not proud of it and she's still mad at me. Also, he was eight years older than me. Should've added that.
36. Big Fat Jerk
I’ve always been overweight. My whole life, even as a little kid. Never really got made fun of for it, though. This is the first, and probably the only time I got “made fun of” for it, to my face anyway. I was in seventh grade, and I was in a small classroom of about eight people. This very thin girl held up her arm and made a comment about her arm fat.
There was clearly nothing there, her arm was a thin twig. I just kind of rolled my eyes in my mind. The teacher, a man around 35, told her, “You’re not fat! Girls always think they’re fat!” Something like that. Then he did the most inappropriate thing. He then points around the class to each person, repeating “You’re not fat, you’re not fat, you’re not fat,” to everyone.
He saved me for last, pointed at me, and didn’t say anything. A couple of people in class chuckled. I’ve never forgotten it.
37. Hip to It
One that sticks in my mind was when I was at a friend’s wedding and ran into another friend’s mother. She leans in for the awkward, "Hi, haven't seen you in a while cheek touch fake kiss thing" and I didn't know what to do with my hand. I accidentally put it on her hip during this encounter. Which probably was nothing…
I'm sure it was nothing. I'm sure she knows that if it was creepy it was unintentional. I'm sure of that, totally. Not creepy. She knows I'm awkward and not a creep. She does. I'm not creepy. She doesn't think I'm a creep and totally hasn't told her daughter, my ex-girlfriend, that I'm a creep.
38. Fly Me to the Moon (Or Anywhere Away From Here)
I was like seven at this big church my family used to go to, and I'd got called up to be on stage with some other kids. The pastor was just being funny, asking questions before going on to the game or whatever we had come up for. He said I looked like a guy who could moonwalk, and I was like nah nah, not me, not at all.
Then when he turned around, I tried to do it...except I didn't know what moonwalking was, so I took these like big steps and acted like I was, you know, walking on the moon. He turned around and was like "did you do it" and I was like “Haha yeah, obviously.” Everyone was laughing and I felt great—at the time.
Of course, now it’s one of those things that keeps me up at night. I didn't realize my mistake until I was like 17, and it just continues to kill me.
39. Foot in Mouth
I have so many of them, I don't know where to start. My parents love to tell the story about how my mom walked in on me and a neighbor boy in the living room. When she saw what we were doing, her jaw dropped. I was casually drawing at the coffee table and the other kid was underneath the table sucking on my toes.
I didn't mind to be honest, in fact I think I was actually enjoying it? Hard to remember, I was maybe five or six. So mom is understandably very uncomfortable, and goes to fetch his dad, who is clearly mortified that this is happening. The dad bodily picks the kid up, face purple, and mutters about how his kid "has a thing about feet" on the way out.
40. No Self Control
I was probably 9 or 10 years old. I pooped my pants at a friend’s house in the middle of the night. Having an extra change of clothes, I tried to change. I didn’t want anyone to find out, so I tried flushing the guilty underwear down the toilet. Well, it didn’t end well. Overflowed the toilet in the middle of the night.
I jumped in the shower and remember hearing a knock at the door and it was his mother. She was way too nice and cleaned everything up for me and never told my friend. It wasn’t til many years later I told him about it and he didn’t believe me until his mom confirmed it. To this day, I haven’t pooped my pants since!
41. Holding It in
In eighth grade, I farted once, and a few minutes later, someone smelled it and asked who did it. They asked if it was me, and I just started crying. I used to be very sensitive and so I thought they were accusing me and felt really bad, so I cried. It's partially because of that that I am now much less emotional, and tend to keep my emotions bottled up.
42. The Truffle Shuffle of Shame
In seventh grade, some girl was wearing a Goonies shirt. I had no idea what it was, but it looked like a punk band or something and she was preppy, so my emo self tried to act offended and said, "Do you even listen to the Goonies?"
43. And Then There’s Darrell
I accidentally mixed up an inside joke with the wrong friend group, with disastrous results. Friend group #1: The “joke” was when someone calls and asks who’s all there, we would add Darrell to the list of names. Darrell wasn’t a real person. The joke wasn’t really funny, and made no sense out of context, but I guess that’s why it was an inside joke.
Friend group #2: I was hanging out playing some drinking games with a bunch of people who I hadn’t hung out with in a while. It was a kind of get together to remember a friend they had who had recently died in a car accident. I didn’t know him that well, but I was always down to party. Anyway, the phone rings, and the person who answered started listing off names.
Sorting my cards for another round of President, I offhandedly said, “heh and Darrell!” It was the typical record-scratch moment where everyone stopped and looked at me. Except it was even worse than that. Darrell was the name of the friend who had just died. This happened in 2002 and I still think about it all the time.
44. The Cover-Up
In seventh grade (‘06 for me), I had just started watching more anime on Toonami and was really into it. One day we had to do a paper describing ourselves coming back from summer break and the class had to put a person to a description. I named my favorite jacket that I wore every day “Takeshi” for God knows why.
Then the cutest new girl in the class read my description out loud, and in it I described the love for my jacket and how I had named it what it was. The cute girl looks weirded out, stares at the class and goes, “What weirdo names their jacket?” Once no one guessed who it was, I piped up and said: “Well maybe they aren’t here today?” I was obviously trying to cover myself.
Except I forgot that this was an IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT. So the teacher said, “No, it had to have been written by someone here?” Finally one of my friends goes, “Hey XXXX aren’t you like the only one in class who plays soccer?” which was also written in my description. I sunk in my seat as we moved on to the next description...I wake up sweating, feeling that jacket still on my shoulders...
Sources: ,
.jpg){kind=link}