How to Embrace Your Embarrassments
Look at yourself like you would a mango
Mangoes are one of the tastiest fruits in the world and are known as the king of fruits. They’re rich, tasty, and nutritious, overall a beautiful fruit. When it’s mango season, you rejoice of its existence, hoping it would ripe nicely.
Now, look at yourself, a human. Similar to a mango, we are the rulers of the world. Although I would pick mangoes over humans most of the time, unlike it, we have intelligence, emotions, and most importantly, potential.
But why do we treat mangoes better than ourselves?
I am sure at one point in your life, you’ve made a big mistake leaving you ashamed and embarrassed. So, in return, you beat yourself up really badly. I know I did.
When I was doing my first internship at 19 in a five-star hotel that should not be named, I messed up a guest’s request related to their departure. It was right after they complimented the excellent service the hotel had given them. Long story short, the guest was furious, and the police were almost involved.
After the problem was resolved, I continued giving myself hell for it. I felt ashamed, fully ignoring that it was my first internship where I was already given an important position in a department without intensive training as well as monitoring. Making mistakes as such was inevitable.
Going back to mangoes. Depending on various factors, the mangoes you bought can range from being very tasty to pure acid. You consider the mangoes good when they taste sweet, or maybe with the right amount of sourness if you will, and a mistake if they taste very sour.
It should be embarrassing for the king of fruits to taste acidic when it can be sweet as honey. However, even when some can be sour as f*ck, instead of throwing the mangoes away, you would probably find ways to make it edible by incorporating it to a smoothie, salad, or compote because you know that mangoes are good.
See the difference in behavior?
I’m not great at picking well ripen fruits as I can’t remember the characteristics well, but I do know how to pick tasty mangoes. The trick is:
To not be deluded by its color and shape, the tastiest ones are those that gives a little when you slightly squeeze them.
Relying on the colors and shapes will give you a bunch of duds. Trust me, the number of mangoes my mom rejected when I picked it is a lot. I can never tell only from the outer appearance.
So, I tried looking at myself from the way I choose a mango. I reflected on who I am on the inside, and I found that I like myself more. I may not be a saint or the most positive person on the planet, but I’m sure I’m not one of the duds.
Now, another piece of information that you should know about mangoes is they only grow on trees after about 4–6 years. Even then, you still have to wait for months until it‘s ready to be harvested. Sometimes, you have to let them sit for a few more days after being harvested so they can fully ripe.
Simply put, it takes an embarrassingly long time to grow tasty mangoes. However, we don’t think about the said process nor judge it. We only see the result in a supermarket, buy and eat them.
With that fact, try seeing your life as the mango tree. In the process of producing a mango, you probably have to break a stem, experience the lack of water, nutrition, or sunlight, and someone might have to hammer a nail to help you produce. But, you’ll produce a mango in the end, and it will be worthwhile.
As you can see, you’re more alike to mangoes than you might feel comfortable knowing... um — and that’s okay.
When times or people are arousing your feelings of embarrassment or shame, remember to always look at yourself like you would a mango.
- Make your very sour mangoes into something edible.
- Be a tasty mango, not a dud.
- The embarrassingly long years are necessary to produce tasty mangoes.
That’s it my fellow mangoes!
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