You’re Going To Embarrass Yourself

Ok. So far, I’ve gotten my “ghost of past” updated from ferrel farm child to University of Illinois college Freshman finding her way through life.

As I sit here on a cold, snowing Colorado morning with my little Amber by my feet, I realize that all of a sudden…I’m a senior citizen! I have a lot more stories to share about my journey from college to this point in time on this day, October 11, 2018. So, I’d better get crackin’.

One thing I have learned along this magical mystery tour, is that we cant take ourselves too seriously. Our youngest son, Nick, would always warn me, “ You’re going to embarrass yourself, Mom”. Usually, it was when he knew I was going to say no to a new toy or deprive him of what he may have wanted at the time. But boy, was he right. My life has been a series of embarrassing moments, all strategically placed to teach me a lesson. That lesson is humility. Luckily, most of my lessons thus far have been comical. Or perhaps I choose to remember those the most and selectively forget the painful ones with more dire consequences? Who knows but anyway, here’s one of my most humbling moments.

It was the first day of medical school at University of Illinois. All of the incoming students were meeting the Dean of the school at a banquet thrown in our honor. I looked “gooood” in my new suit with my “Farrah” hairdo, circa 1982.  I had never had a cup of coffee in my life but I saw the Dean standing over by the large silver “hot” banquet sized coffee pot. This was my chance to introduce myself. So I meandered over to the coffee pot, poured a cup of piping hot java into a little white styrofoam cup and proceeded to say “ Hi, I’m Lisa Cunningham “. I needed to shake the Dean’s hand with my right, so I transferred the coffee cup to my left hand. First mistake!
In my effort to look a little suave, I leaned my left elbow up against the large banquet size coffee pot, which was 180 degrees Fahrenheit.

Since my left elbow was connected to my left hand which was connected to my sympathetic nervous system/spinal cord, I proceeded to throw the cup of hot coffee in my own face! This all took place EXACTLY as my right hand was shaking the Dean’s hand and introducing myself. As I stood there with piping hot coffee dripping from my face, he asked, “ Why did you throw hot coffee in your own face?” He obviously hadn’t made the connection that I had leaned up against a burning surface with my elbow.  Nor had I. It all happened so reflexively, my cerebral cortex had no time to process the assault. So, I answered…”I don’t know”. Which I’m sure, at that moment in time, made him wonder if admissions standards had dropped to an all time low or perhaps I was one of those hardship cases let into his school to satisfy some governmental quota.

So, what did I learn from this unfortunate scenario in the evolution of me? Don’t try to be something you’re not. I wasn’t a coffee drinker?I didn’t know that silver banquet coffee pots weren’t childproofed? I had no common sense? There is a feedback loop in our nervous systems that bypasses our cortex, putting  a new meaning to “knee-jerk” reaction? Who knows.

But in the end, it’s part of the fabric of me. That’s what has helped me become more humble and vulnerable and funny, I guess.

“ Hi, my name is Lisa”…splash!