I Am Always Embarrassing Myself...

Recently, Dennis Prager on his radio show made a statement concerning learning and embarrassing oneself....I'm paraphrasing because I can't quote his exact words....But it was something like; if a person is afraid of embarrassing themselves, they will never learn...He was talking mostly about asking questions, but I think it applies to making statements as well.
Tonight, I embarrassed myself royally.....It was actually something I wish I could reverse, but alas, I can't.

When leaving TKD class, I bade TaeKwon to a visiting 4th Dan Black Belt. I welcomed him to our school and just as deliberately as if I had known him all my life, addressed him by the wrong name. In my mind I "thought" he was called Mr. ____.  But, I did doubt my memory.  If I had given myself a few seconds to reflect on my words, I would have never addressed him by name. I would have just called him Sir, which is proper etiquette for demonstrating respect for a higher rank in TKD. But, I opened my mouth and out came Mr. ______.  It didn't help that there were several black belts and other high ranking TKD students standing around.

 He quickly corrected me, but as my son said, "Mom, it was awkward." These are not the words I needed to hear as I already felt flustered about the whole thing....But, he was right....It was awkward. I totally embarrassed myself.  However, I LEARNED a valuable lesson. If in doubt, be quiet!! Or...think before speaking. Or.......tread carefully in TKD school!!!!

For those of you who are interested, I posted another fact on my blog, I'ts Factual.blogspot.com. I've not kept up with that lately. I hope to do better.....I love studying......I'm just plain curious about all kinds of topics....