I wont lie about it: I am an awkward person. I almost walk into people almost everyday and am really good at those awkward conversations when walking by people. Now, I’ve learned pretty well how to cope with my awkwardness, but the holidays are an especially rough time to try and avoid many awkward encounters. Here are a few struggles I have faced over my holidays as an awkward person.
1. Trying to remember family members’ names
I come from a huge family. I am one of four, have 13 first cousins, and at least 50 second and third cousins. We like to gather over the holidays, but it's rough to keep track of all those names. At our Christmas party last year, I continually had to whisper in my aunt’s ear to make sure I did not call someone by the wrong name. Find a relative who can help with all the names and won't be offended when you do not know any. Another option is to hold conversations with people and pretend you 100 percent know their name. Fake it till you make it, and hope you don't accidentally call Frank, Frankie.
2. Not spilling everything
With the holidays comes food, and for me that means spilling. My family is large and Italian, which means every meal is full of red wine and spaghetti sauce. Potential disaster just awaits. I am lucky to get by if I do not get anything on my lap or all over my face. Try to avoid wearing white at the holidays, use lots of napkins and act casual.
3. Avoiding questions about the future
Family members like to know how everyone is doing. Unfortunately for me and most of my cousins, that means asking about our future. At last year's big Christmas get-together, I knew every single one of my relatives was going to ask about my college search. Luckily enough for me, I had already committed to Santa Clara and could avoid the long spiel about all the different colleges I was looking at for the next year. Now most of my cousins are of age, so my uncle created a game where each of my cousins picked a question they were sure to get asked often that night and count the number of times they got asked that question. At the end of the night, they got to cope by taking a shot for every time they got asked that question. So if you are of age, that might be a helpful way for you to get through your holiday meal. If not of age, come prepared with succinct answers and easy segues to more entertaining subjects, or just cope with how incredibly uncomfortable it is.
The holidays can be hard, especially for us with a little extra awkward. Hopefully these will help you get through the holidays, or feel a little better about yourself and your awkwardness. These people are your family, so everything should be OK in the end. Good Luck to everyone this holiday season.
