$10 of Shame
By Yvonne Wong, NYP Graduate
When I was in year 1 semester 1 in NYP, I enjoyed exploring new places in school to eat. One of my most memorable dining experiences was in NYP Mcdonald’s (sorry folks, it’s now closed).
My friends and I had a two hours break so it was a good time to relax and have a good lunch. The awesome thing about NYP macs was how cheap the food was! Upsizing your drink (coke/sprite) was only an additional 10 cents! For the poor Poly students that we were, the affordable price of macs was all we talked about before break that day. I was looking forward to the meal.
Unsurprisingly, the meal was great. I mean, for the price of ~$5 I had a tummy-filling, upsized filet-o-fish meal. The meal and the company were awesome but good times don’t last forever. We were approaching the end of our break. Naturally, I went to return my tray and dispose of my trash.
“Hey Yvvvvooooonnnnneeeeee!”
My friend suddenly exclaimed as I disposed of the trash into the dustbin.
“Pick the money up!!” She continued to exclaim.
My face blushed and (probably) turned red. In a noisy, budget-friendly MacDonald’s filled with students, I was called out. Despite the relatively loud environment, my friend’s exclamation soared above the conversations of the students who were dining in Macs.
I could feel many eyes turn in our direction; I wanted to disappear instantly or at least have Harry Potter’s invisible cloak to get away from the embarrassment. I could do neither. Instead, I stood there, frozen.
Eventually, I put my hand into the dustbin to pick up the $10 note that was thrown in. The $10 of shame. I was never so embarrassed before.
Presentation Mess
By Melissa Seow, NYP Graduate
My most embarrassing moment in Poly happened that one day where I forgot that I had a presentation and wore a sweater and sweat pants to school. When I realised it, I panicked! I ran to Cotton On at Ang Mo Kio Hub and bought a new "work" dress.
As I was from a business course, I had to wear heels. I wasn’t planning to buy new heels so I texted my friends to ask if I could borrow theirs for the presentation. My classmates came to my rescue and it was like a reverse Cinderella scene where I had to try on everybody's shoes to find the right fit.
Thankfully, I managed to find a shoe about my size and wore it to the presentation. After the presentation, I returned the shoe to my friend. What a whirlwind of events.
Emo and They Know it!
By Hannah Chua, NP Graduate
I had just broken up and was feeling heartbroken. Naturally, like most girls, I turned to writing down my emo thoughts on a blog. Looking back, I was definitely being dramatic in my journaling, saying things like “I feel like I don’t know you anymore like you’re a complete stranger.” (ew)
The blog was private as I did not want anyone to read what I was going through. It was just an outlet for me to vent out all my negative feelings. However, my WordPress account was also used for a school assignment where I had to create a blog to submit my works. Our lecturer told us to set it such that he would be notified via email every time we posted something to the blog so that it can serve as a timestamp of our submission. And guess what?
Yes, I accidentally posted on the wrong blog. Oh. My. Gosh.
To my horror, I quickly deleted it but it was no use because a preview of my post was included in the email to him. I wanted to bury myself and hide! Then came a text from my lecturer asking me if everything was alright. I was so embarrassed that I lied and said that it was my friend who used my account to post it.
In moments like these, we may feel an overwhelming embarrassment, wishing that we could hide from the world and we dare not even imagine how we can pick ourselves up from such situations. However, the common thing that we noticed when talking to these three alumni was that such embarrassing moments eventually turn into a good laugh with friends over time as we recount them after months or years have passed.
Take your time to recover from the embarrassment but let it blossom into a good memory to cherish and laugh at when looking back after some time.
