She Taught Me Humility

Sometimes, we can develop necessary traits in the oddest situations or groups of people.

Humility.

Not only is it a word that will make you sound smart if you know the true meaning of it, but it’s also just a fun word to say in general. Really rolls off the tongue. It’s defined as the quality of being humble, which is actually a critical life skill.

Even though it’s vital to learn, most haven’t and never will. It doesn’t come easy by any means, but that doesn’t mean we should disregard it if we don’t have it. Humility can attract strangers to you because they feel that you are down-to-Earth enough to talk to. Don’t mistake that for a lack of self-confidence, however, because those are two very different traits.

It is possible to be confident in yourself while still being humble, despite popular belief. An easy way to follow that path of humbleness is to ask yourself whether or not you’re forcing whatever is making you sound like an airhead. If you’ve managed to strike up a conversation with a random stranger and you’re discussing a certain book, it’s probably not the best time to brag about your expensive cheese collection. Do you see where I’m going with this?

While there are a few exceptions, most people do try to be humble and it shows. We just need a little reminder every once in a while to nudge us in the right direction, and that can come from experience or just some self-reflection. In fact, my friend had to remind me once about humility. She wasn’t trying to teach me about becoming a better person while this was happening, but it just so happened to work out that way.

Learning from other people is a great sign that your ego isn’t overinflated, because it’s a sign that you can take both criticism and realize you are not perfect and can improve. In some situations, like the one I’m about to share with you, a little embarrassment every once in a while does the trick. That’s not to say you should always do what I did, but you can always learn something from a story, whether it be positive or negative. Hopefully, you’ll come out with a positive takeaway.

I was curled up into a ball on the bus seat and tried to pretend like I didn’t exist as I stared in disbelief at my hand, which was now redder than a baboon’s butt after he’s done a mean grunt and my hand was throbbing in pain. I had my pink-colored face turned away and tucked into my knees as if that would help the unspeakable amount of discomfort I was in. I was thankful that the bus seats were so high since it covered the unmistakable shame written all over my face in permanent marker.

A couple hours earlier, everything was just fine. I was actually excited. How many times can you say that about a school field trip?

Our school was going to see a play instead of holding classes that day. They were adamant that to appreciate the theater, there would be no electronics allowed and anyone who was caught with one would lose it for God knows how long. Some kids thought they were the best liars ever and still brought them anyway. Of course they did. I’m no snitch, but some kid had a Nintendo Switch.

Anywho, I also didn’t want to lose my phone, so I was forced to entertain myself without electronics. Man, what a pain. There was a massive eight-player game of Uno that went on for a while, which lasted until everybody realized it was Uno and stopped playing.

The play itself wasn’t terrible and a Q&A period was held after. Once that wrapped up, we had to go back on the bus to eat our lunch. How gourmet. Eating didn’t take long since everyone was told to bring quick lunches, and we were off to head back. I don’t know what kind of food we all packed, but we were not the same after that lunch.

No one wanted to play cards or talk like normal human beings, so like the mature young adults we were, we played never have I ever and truth or dare. No one could agree on what the final scores were, because everyone kept lying. Still fun, I guess? I don’t know.

Everything leading up to this point was a kind of a jumbled mess of adolescence, so take the background I just gave with a grain of salt.

Everyone was still super hyper, so then we got the great idea to play hand tennis. My friend, who we’ll call Janet so I don’t have to keep calling her my friend or she, was behind that idea. Hand tennis, if you don’t know, involves holding each other’s hand and slapping the backs of them until someone pulls away. I don’t know who came up with that genius idea for a time-waster, but if I ever found out who it was, no one would know who came up with it. I don’t regret many things in life, but boy was this one close.

The other thing that you have to remember is Janet is a girl. Big surprise, I know, but that meant there was no way I was going to hit her. Even if I was confident I’d win, which I was, it was just a lose-lose situation. I declined more than once, but she was adamant to take me down so I reluctantly agreed. She also didn’t have super long fingernails, but she did have some super sharp fingernails. Remember that for later.

I went first and slapped her enough to where I wouldn’t be made fun of for being nice, but easy enough to where I would get canceled. Ignoring our previous friendship and throwing it out the bus window, this girl wound up and sent a stinger back. The pain was instant. She must have had experience at slapping people before because man oh man did it feel awful.

I came back with some retribution, this time even harder. She responded by also upping her power, which seemed impossible considering how badly the first one hurt. I gave her a fast one, which prompted a series of fast slaps that ended in a total whiff on my part. She took advantage and smacked the soul out of my hand.

The pain was unbearable, but I told myself I wasn’t gonna cry, and there was no way I was conceding now. The crowd built up at the back of the bus was far too rowdy, and the slander I would receive after would hurt worse than Janet’s slaps. By now, we were in too deep and too prideful to admit defeat. Those sharp fingernails that I had mentioned earlier?

They dug into the palm of my hand and felt like little bee stingers with each passing second they remained there. After I whiffed yet again, she slapped me with the force of brick and that was it. I gave up and just tried to hide my face the best that I could. She seemed happy, and even though her hand wasn’t as bad as mine, it still didn’t look great.

It was embarrassing and remained in that condition for the next two weeks. Why have I revealed this now? Well, it’s a reminder for not only myself but for everyone reading this to be humble. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into and quickly underestimated the competition. That’s not to say you’ll get raw meat for a hand if you don’t learn humility, but you get my point.

Humility should be practiced, not bottled up.