Hoang 1

Tue Hoang
Paul Donohoe
English 10.6
October 2013
Embarrassment Essay IR Draft
In my lower school there once stood a large wooden wall that separated the
playground from our classrooms area. It had been there before I came to learn at the school,
and so its presence had always been a part of my childhood memories. I could vividly picture
the image of myself running around the wall with my friends, or hiding behind it for a game
of hide-and-seek, or drawing all kinds of imagination over its face with white chalk. Yet, the
one thing about this wall that made me remember it most until the end of my life, is not those
beautiful memories of youth, but the story of its death, and of my own embarrassment
attached with that collapse whenever I came to think about it.
The story began on a hot summer afternoon. I had been napping for an hour, waiting
for my parents to come pick me up, when someone came and set me awake. It was indeed a
terrible experience to be waken up suddenly and to have the scorching sunlight at its zenith
brighten the sleepy face after an incomplete rest.
Hey, little! Sleeping in the middle of the day, eh?
I opened my eyes to see who was speaking. It was not just a person, but a group of
people. To be more exact, a group of kids. They were not from my school, as they were
wearing uniforms of another school. They were likely older than me, for they were taller and
looked bigger. I was not afraid in any way, though. I cleared my throat and asked:
Who are you all? And what do you want with me?
Oh, we just think that you have had enough nap for today.
Hoang 2

One of them answered, and they laughed altogether at that comment. I threw them a
look of indifference and tried to lie down and get back to my midday dreams again. But the
older kids would not let me alone.
Hey guys, lets play a game and have some fun. Why dont we try climbing over this
wall to the other side and compete to see who could do it swiftest?
I heard them. This was definitely going to ruin my sleep and my peace. I sat up
immediately and said out loud in a somehow sarcastic manner:
Why dont you all try climbing those trees over there and see who falls first?
Look, little guy is afraid of climbing this wall! Hes afraid that we might fall over the
wall! Dont worry, we will not fall on you for sure.
And they laughed again after this boys reply. I tried to keep control of myself.
Thats exactly what Im worrying about. Clumsy boys could never make it to the
other side without bruises. Such guys should practice climbing and falling from trees first.
That response was made with a challenging look, with eyes sparkling of pride and
arrogance. I immediately regreted my answer, though. Perhaps I should not have challenged
them while I myself wanted peace. Or perhaps that they needed a challenge in order to allow
me peace. Right, lets see this not-so-clumsy boy make it over the wall. First prove that you
yourself can do it, loser! Now they challenged me back to climb that wall first. I refused and
made an attempt to run away. But it was too late. One of the boys stopped me and took me up
by the collar, and held me against the wall. He said in an arrogant manner:
Prove by climbing over this wall as fast as possible. Now.
He was the biggest kid in that group, and yet I tried to break away from his grip, and
bit him quite hard in his arm. He responsed with a painful punch right in my stomach. The
other kids began to seem serious about me fighting back like that, so they quickly surrounded
me to as if to threaten to hit me all together if I rebelled again. I really had to climb the wall.
Hoang 3

I slowly got up and placed my foot in position for a preparing jump at the wall. One
two , I counted silently in my head, getting myself ready for the epic leap.
Three! I jumped high up and quickly got my grip on top of the wall. I was
halfway up the wall, and was preparing to finish the performance by jumping on the other
side, when those kids came all upon me and pulled my pants all the way down!
Needless to state out loud that I was terribly embarrassed.
I quickly exerted a great force to try jumping back real quick to the other side in order
to end my embarrassed state with the pants pulled down. So hard was my attempt, that upon
my landing my pants nearly got pulled out completely. The kids had a thunderous laugh on
that. Then something even more unexpected happened: The whole wooden wall fell off to my
side! And it was not just me who startled because of this unexpected event: the other boys
were also terrified, and they (automatically) ran away as fast as they could so as to pretend
that they were not involved. Some boys among them still laughed, though, probably because
they had succeeded in making fun of me by exposing my whole lower body. I just wanted to
cry out loud, yet to realize that I need to get round and pull my pants back up. Since I didnt
know what to do with the fallen wall at the time, I simply left it there and returned home
without breathing a word.
The wall was found fallen later, and a teacher announced to the whole school the
following day about it. No one in our school seemed to know exactly what happened and who
caused it to fall, except for me. The story associated with the downfall of the wall had been
the most embarrassing moment in my life up until now, and that is how my embarrassment
got associated with the collapse of a wooden wall which I spent many a time playing around.
When I actually think about it now, I feel a deep sense of nostalgia for that memory, but also
a deep feeling of shame No one had ever pulled my pants down before the story took place,
and fortunately no one had yet repeated that act since.