The Last Word

By Ega Mackenzie | Posted: Tuesday May 26, 2026

Morning boys, my name is Ega Mackenzie, one of your Service Prefects this year.

Today I’m going to talk about embarrassment. I think embarrassment is probably one of the best things that can happen to you, which is lucky because school gives you plenty of it. Every boy here has had a shocker at some point, cracking a joke you thought would make everyone laugh, getting rejected, or saying something in class that sounded way smarter in your head. In the moment, it feels like your life is over, but then nobody actually cares for that long. Everyone moves on because they’re too busy worrying about their own embarrassing moments, and I reckon learning that is important.

I remember when I first started playing volleyball. At the start, I was genuinely terrible. I could barely serve properly, half my passes went in random directions, and I spent most games apologising to my teammates after messing something up. There were definitely moments when I felt embarrassed, especially when everyone else looked like they knew exactly what they were doing while I was just trying not to completely sell the game. Part of me wanted to quit because it’s uncomfortable being bad at something in front of other people.

But after a while, I stopped caring so much about looking stupid and just started enjoying it. The more I played, the more confident I got, and eventually the embarrassment disappeared because I realised nobody expected me to be perfect straight away. Everyone starts somewhere. And if I’d let the fear of looking bad stop me from continuing, I would’ve missed out on something I actually really enjoyed.

And that’s kind of the point. We make embarrassment feel way bigger than it actually is. Most of the time, the thing you’re stressing about matters way more to you than it does to anyone else. But when you’re scared of feeling embarrassed, you start avoiding things. You stop putting your hand up in class because you might get it wrong. You don’t go for leadership positions because people might judge you. You don’t talk to new people because you’re worried about looking awkward. A lot of boys would rather protect their egos than risk looking stupid for a few minutes.

The problem is that staying comfortable sounds good until you realise comfort doesn’t really lead anywhere. Every good thing in life comes with some embarrassment first. You have to be awkward before you become confident. You have to be average before you become good. Nobody starts off impressive. The boys who seem the most confident now are usually just the ones who stopped caring so much about looking perfect all the time. They realised embarrassment doesn’t actually kill you. If anything, it helps.

I think some of the best people to be around are the ones who can laugh at themselves a bit. The people who can admit when they got something wrong or when they looked stupid, instead of pretending they’ve always got everything sorted. Because the truth is, nobody here has everything figured out. We’re all just learning as we go.

So stop overthinking every tiny thing you do because nobody’s analysing you as much as you think they are. And remember, you don’t have to play it safe all the time. Do things. Take opportunities. Risk looking stupid occasionally. Being embarrassed for five minutes is far better than regretting something for years because you were too scared to try.

In true OBHS fashion, I’ll end with a quote: “Embarrassment is an underexplored emotion. Go out and make a fool of yourself.”