As I sit to write my last editorial, my last article ever as a Prep student, I contemplate what I want my legacy and message to be.  I considered a deep reflection piece, but decided I would best serve the readers of the paper by sharing something even more personal.  My embarrassing moments.  These moments are the ones that “everyone will forget in a week” but are the ones I will remember forever.  So, just in case these incidents may be fleeting in my classmate’s and teacher’s minds, here I am to revive them one last time.

To start, let’s take it back to my freshman year.  Ah, 2015.  This first incident occurred while I was at soccer practice.  I was the C-Team goalie and my goal coach was none other than Mr. Hickey himself.  At practice one day, I was trying to explain to Hickey that I had injured my finger a few days prior and tore the ligaments in it. I tend to talk with my hands and unknowingly stuck my middle finger straight into the air as he asked me, “Which finger did you hurt?”.

Freshman year was flipping off the president of the school, but little did I know, sophomore had much more in store for me.

As sophomore year was in full swing, I had a interesting time adjusting to Marquette collegio with Mr. Barmore and Mrs. Tullis.  Two of my most uncomfortable collegio moments occurred involving Tullis; one at the beginning of the year and one at the end.  The first was when I was particularly frustrated after a lengthy homework assignment the night prior and took my anger out on Tullis, quite personally.  While talking to my friends before class, I exclaimed, “I HATE MRS. TULLIS”.

She heard.  As if that was not bad enough, I proceeded to walk into the classroom and retell the story.  She heard again.  Despite this, I came to appreciate Tullis over the year and would now proudly call her one of the best teachers I have had.  Therefore, I wanted to express this to her.  My sophomore year was Tullis’ last year and as the class was saying their goodbyes and the end of the year, I ran up to hug her and accidentally said, “I love you Mrs. Tullis.”

To which she promptly responded with a questioning eye, “Oh, thanks?”

Now, these events were the bookends of sophomore year, but there was one little, special, awkward moment falling in the middle of the year.  The year was 2017, the class was health and wellness.  Coach Maul was explaining to our class one day about how his daughter would be a freshman in two years and I told him my brother would be a freshman then as well.  Then, I had an urge to blurt out in front of the class, “Mr. Maul, my brother and your daughter can date and get married! We’re gonna be related!”

He said, “Okay” and immediately moved on as I shrank in my seat.

The final moment occurred my junior year during a hard track workout.  It was hot and it was the first workout after spring break (AKA a week of not running) and I was suffering through my 800s.  I believe some context is needed to fully understand the situation.  I am missing two of my teeth in the front and until a few months ago had teeth on a retainer that I could remove. It is weird and interesting and I used it to my advantage.  During the workout, I was overheating, out of breath, and dehydrated; I wanted to stop.  So, I pulled the old, “Carey I can’t run my teeth fell out” to my coach.

She was shocked and confused but I managed to get out of the workout so this occurrence was marked off as a success in my book.

While these moments may make me cringe to the point of tears, I am proud to dedicate my awkwardness to the journalism program.  And as far as senior embarrassing moments for me, there are a countless amount because I have found that the more comfortable I have become at Prep, the louder I am, the more I expose myself.  The senior year stories are ones to be told in the future, when my wounds have healed.