Learning to laugh at yourself

I think one of the most important traits anyone can pick up is the ability to laugh at oneself.  Because lately I have been a little bit less than perfect at getting everything out on time and because I want to be able to show importance of being able to laugh at yourself, I will tell you one of my most embarrassing stories.

            So it was a few years ago.  After a long day of tests, my friends and I decided to go out to dinner. It was a large group of people and almost all of them shared a few classes with me.  The table roared with conversation and laughter and the large table had split into many side conversations as it usually does.  At this point in the story, I was conversing with maybe one person and was being largely ignored by the group, so the waiter sees me and walks up to me and ask me if I would like a refill on my drink. 

            My drink wasn’t completely empty and I am pretty sure he only offered to refill my drink because he was bored and wanted something to do.  So he reaches over and picks up my cup and then looks at me and says through the noise:

            “Oh, would you like to finish this off?”

            I thought this was a strange request, but I figured he just wasn’t a wasteful person and didn’t want the amount of soda left in to cup to go to waste.  To this day, I do not know what compelled me to do this, but, for some reason, I decided to get up, out of my chair and sip the soda out of the cup WHILE the waiter was holding the cup.  Suddenly, the table got quiet and I looked up to see the waiter have a look of shock and disgust on his face.  It was at that moment I realized the waiter didn’t say, “Would you like to finish this off,” but rather, “Would you like to take your straw?”

            I sit in a quiet embarrassment as my face glows red and the waiter scurries away, straw and all.  The table gets quiet for a bit, until one of my friend looks at me and says, “Well, you are a dork” and the table bursts into laughter, me included.

            So yeah, the next day, everyone, including my teachers, made fun of me when hearing the story.  And yeah, even years later, I get people walking up to me with a cup saying “would you like to finish this off?”  But, I laugh alongside them.  Because if you laugh alongside them, then the world is filled with a little more laughter, and we all feel a little more amazing because of it.