Fall Down and Never Get Backup Again

How To Fall Down and Get Back up Once again

This is a lesson on how to look absolutely ridiculous in front of a crowd of strangers, and how to recover as gracefully as possible.

Well, let's clarify that a bit: the outset part is like shooting fish in a barrel, since I am constantly making stupid mistakes all over the globe and trying to minimize the embarrassment. I have no shortage of experience in the impaired-things-I've-done-in-random-countries department.

The 2nd role of the lesson is more important: how to recover from your own Almost Embarrassing Moment. Anyone tin do stupid things, as I tell myself pretty much every time I travel and become lost somewhere. Information technology's the dauntless ones who are able to recover.

I decided to tell this story because I was talking to a friend the other mean solar day who recently had her own Most Embarrassing Moment. I told her this story, and she smiled a little. You know who you are.

So, enough procrastinating. Here yous have it – how to await like a consummate idiot in a foreign setting.

The setting for my Most Embarrassing Moment was Singapore.

I arrived in the city state of Singapore from Bangkok afterward visiting Burma (Myanmar) for several days. The trip to Burma was practiced—I'll write about it at some point later.

It terms of cost, Singapore is a mid-ranged city; it'southward non super-expensive like Tokyo, but it'south not as cheap as Hong Kong either. I had booked a room at the local YMCA, which in Singapore is more similar a hotel than a hostel. It was a dainty room with my own shower, net access, and complimentary breakfast in the mornings. I spent the days wandering the metropolis similar I ever exercise, and but as in Hong Kong, a lot of the wandering in Singapore takes place in malls and connected shopping centers.

One of these shopping centers was on Orchard Road, right outside the YMCA. I ended up there in the afternoon afterwards taking the metro to diverse places around the city. I don't always eat lunch when I'm traveling, but I about never miss my afternoon coffee break.

There are a lot of Starbucks in Singapore—this guy can tell yous exactly how many and where they are. They're simply similar "habitation" in most places, merely too serve local items. Thus I concluded upwards at the Orchard Route Starbucks, where I looked forrard to taking my coffee back over to the YMCA for an hour of reading.

I went inside, thankful for the a/c since Singapore is usually very hot. I ordered acafé au lait, which for some reason is called something dissimilar in each country in the world (what's with that, Starbucks?), and picked it upward from the counter.

Then, a funny thing happened to me on the way out of the edifice. A glass door came out of the middle of nowhere and walked correct into me.

Some of the many observers who witnessed this assault might say that I walked into the glass, but I'll ever know better. It was a fully-transparent drinking glass door, and I swear it just appeared at that place all suddenly. I moment I'm walking out of the Starbucks into the warm sunny day, and in the next moment, I'm staring at a java-covered glass door that came out of the sky to block my leave. My caput injure, and I dropped my bag.

At first I was in daze.What had just happened?

Then I looked downwardly and saw my java on the flooring, and looked upward to see a drinking glass door that wasn't at that place before. I likewise saw a door handle, which manifestly I was supposed to pull to open instead of attempting to magically walk through. Who knew?

I swear if there was someone there with a video camera that solar day, this incident would be all over YouTube. Thankfully, information technology was just me and a bunch of surprised Singaporeans. I could hear all kinds of people talking nigh me as I backed abroad from the wall of glass that had but come out of nowhere to block my exit.

"Did that guy only walk into the door?" someone said. "Oh my God," said someone else.

Yes, information technology was that bad. When people could tell I was okay, they started to laugh. I looked up at them and tried to smile as I was cleaning my coffee off the floor and the make-new glass door. As quick as I could, and every bit gracefully as I could—which wasn't proverb much by then—I got out of the building and walked away.

I went dorsum across the street to the YMCA, where I drank the remaining half of my coffee that survived the accident. Thiscafé au lait is very well mixed at present, I idea.

Later that night, I went back outside, and looked at my nemesis beyond the street. The evil glass door.Okay, I thought.It's over now. What tin can I possibly larn from this?

The 5-Step Recovery Process

It goes similar this. First, admit yous accept a problem… no, not that list.

Okay, attempt this one:

1.Put yourself together as quickly as possible.I had a few napkins in my mitt, so I used one to wipe upwardly some of the coffee and milk that was all over the door and the flooring.

2.Express mirth at yourself fifty-fifty though it's non funny at all. It's really not funny when it happens to yous, but if you express joy, other people will feel more gratis to express joy. And then it'south like they're laughing with you, although of class they're not.

3.Never go back to the same Starbucks.OR, you can do it this manner:

4.Force yourself to go back to the same place in an endeavor to break the jinx. Just remember to watch out for the door!

v.Use your embarrassing moment to aid someone else, such as I'm doing hither. I promise it's helpful to you on your next visit to a glass-doored java shop somewhere in the world.

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I won't be so cruel as to ask you to think about your own embarrassing moments. Instead, I'll ask you lot to think most your goals for globe domination (or whatever they are). Recovering from stupid mistakes is crucial to living a life of adventure, because if you lot set out to exercise dandy things, yous'll probably accept a few big falls as well.

I tried to forget nearly that afternoon on Orchard Road for equally long as I could. But when I heard my friend'southward embarrassing story the other twenty-four hour period, it came right back into my listen.

I expect to be back in Singapore sometime in the summer, and I'll probably stay in the YMCA again. Information technology does a great free breakfast. But as to whether I'll visit the Starbucks across the street or not, I'thou really not sure.

If you e'er get there yourself, picket out for the glass door. And when you fall down somewhere else, brush information technology off and keep going.

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Source: https://chrisguillebeau.com/how-to-fall-down-and-get-back-up-again