Guest Post: Lindsay of Babble

I am thrilled to have Lindsay of the beautifully written blog Babblebits as guest post du jour. Please note that Lindsay intentionally writes the first-person “I” in lower case.

After Corinna’s post about having stuck her foot in her mouth, i immediately remembered something that happened to me in high school. At the time, it felt near-catastrophic (and i wasn’t even the person who said it), but now it’s something where i can look back and laugh.

First i need to tell a bit of back story. It was my senior year, and a friend of mine and i were having a conversation where she and were comparing notes on whether or not we thought we were bisexual. Neither of us had any experience either way, but we were discussing what sort of things we found attractive in people – men and women both. Strange thing to talk about, maybe? I dunno. We both attended an all-girls catholic high school, so of course when the conversation was overheard, it was wildly misinterpreted. Within 24 hours it was just a Well Known Fact that i was a Rampaging Lesbian who was sleeping with ALL of her friends and at least half of the faculty. Naturally.

But wait for it: it gets better. Now, the school had a policy that we weren’t supposed to change out of our uniforms until after we were off-campus, but they’d generally let the seniors get away with minor infractions like that. Our skirts were part wool, which i’m allergic to, so i wore bicycle shorts under my skirt to help keep the skirt from touching my skin. But on most days i couldn’t get the damn skirt off fast enough.

So on one nice sunny day, towards the end of the year, i was standing outside the school in jeans and a t-shirt. A friend of mine from the freshman class had never seen me wearing anything but my uniform, so when she passed by me, she did a double take and shouted, “Lindsay! I didn’t recognize you with your CLOTHES ON!”

*facepalm*

It was one of those moments where there are lots of people around, but all conversation stopped when they heard what she’d said. They all turned and stared, silent and slack-jawed. Oh, I couldn’t find a big enough rock to crawl under. The poor girl was so embarrassed that immediately after she said it, she clapped both her hands over her still-open mouth and turned dark red.

And that’s how the rumor started that i’d also been sleeping with half of the freshman class.

I know there have been plenty of moments where i’ve stuck my foot so far into my mouth that i could have tap-danced on my spleen, but i’ve found that most of the time? I’m the one who remembers it more than anyone else. I’ve worked to let those memories go, but to remember what i’ve learned from them. Except the ones that are potentially funny – those i try to remember the whole shebang. Because being able to laugh at these moments (albeit usually in retrospect) is SO important. I’m sure that the only two people who might remember that day from high school are me and the girl who said she didn’t recognize me with clothes on. But honestly? I hope that if she remembers it, she finds it as amusing as i do.

Thank you, Lindsay for a very entertaining post. I particularly enjoy that you found forgiveness as a life lesson. Beautiful words my friend and you are a beautiful woman.

i’ve stuck my foot so far into my mouth that i could have tap-danced on my spleen ouch! LOVE!