It was my senior year. My choir teacher asked me if I'd like to sing the national anthem for our Winterfest pep rally. I really excited she asked and said yes. I practiced and practiced because my biggest fear was that I'd crack on "rockets red glare." The good news is I didn't. The bad news is I didn't sing it at all.
I walked up, grabbed the mic from the sound guy, hummed in the pitch pipe, and began to sing.
Me: Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight
[insert long awkward pause]
Did I mess up? Was that wrong? Oh no....
Crowd: Boooooooo.....
Maybe they didn't Boo. Maybe is was Oooooooh... But when you're in front of a crowd and you hear and "ooo" sound, you're going to think it's Boo. I still think it was Boo. And if you're me, you're not going to let that happen.
Me: You know what?! I know I suck... Get over it!!
Girl in crowd: You can do it!!!!!!!!
The crowd began the "slow clap." You know, like in the movies? One person starts to clap, and slowly more join in... Yeah, that happened.
Me: [hum in little pitch pipe and try to start again] ..........
No.... I can't.
I quickly walked back to the bleachers to two of my friends, who were kind enough not to disown me. We left the pep rally early. Nobody is going to stop the girl that just humiliated herself right? Someone did. I'm almost certain that one of the vice principals, coaches, or teachers said something along the lines of "It isn't so bad, everyone will forget by Monday." I did not stop to listen, I wanted out of there. By the way, they were wrong. People remembered.
My friends took me to Chickfila, got me a milkshake, and we laughed. We laughed at how insanely embarrassing that was and how it would make a great story. That it is. It is my one great story.
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