To the person who stared at me as I waved back at them, let me start off by saying that I'm sorry. Though I had absolutely no idea who you were, I thought you were being friendly and waving at me. I saw you waving your hand in the air with a great big smile on your face and I, like the friendly person I am, smiled back and waved, only to realize you weren't exactly being friendly and waving at me, but instead waving at the person behind me.
From behind me, I heard, "Hi (insert name here)!" and you responded by running up to the person behind me and hugging them. I turned around and stared at you two hugging with disbelief for at least a solid 5 seconds. Did I actually just embarrass myself in public? What was going through your mind? Did you even realize that I humiliated myself? Did anyone else see what I just did? My excited smile went to a humiliated frown the instant I turned around.
At this point, I felt like I should've been walking around the store with a paper bag on my head. I even forgot what I came to the store for in the first place because all I could think about was the mortification I just faced. I walked around the store practically looking like a lost puppy. Many employees stopped me in my tracks and asked if I needed help to locate something. Each time, I answered no, but in my head, I asked for a rewind button so I wouldn't have to walk around the store in complete and utter shame.
While after all this time I'm still not sure if you knew what happened or the shame I went through, I'm here to let you know that I have moved on from this incident. Though it still haunts me from time to time and I always have to point at myself when I see someone waving at me/in my direction to make sure it's me they're waving to, I am taking this as a lesson well-learned. So, in a strange way, thank you for teaching me this lesson. It definitely wasn't the most ideal way to learn, but there's nothing wrong with facing humiliation head on every so often.
