Embarassing things happen, but it's how you respond to them that matters and Katie Hannaford is giving a master class in that right now.
If you're a human who interacts with other humans, you're going to embarass yourself at some point.
Maybe you'll fall in the high school cafeteria so spectacularly that you take down a dozen people with you and your friends make bowling jokes about it for the next decade.
Maybe you'll do a whole presentation at work with a "wardrobe malfunction" that nobody tells you about.
Maybe you, like Katie, will trip over yourself during a race and fall in a way that leaves you mooning a school full of 8 year olds and their parents.
Maybe you, like Katie, will have that fall—and your thunder from down under—caught on video in the age of social media and that video will go viral.
Yeah, Katie wins.
Not the race, obviously, but the Embarrassment Olympics.
She was at her daughter's school for a sort of family Sports Day that involved games and races.
The British mom didn't intend to participate, but it was important to her child, so she did what many of us would do and lined up at the starting line anyway.
If you're thinking "Hmm, this sounds familiar..." it's because this same story famously happened with Princess Diana.
She attended Sports Day for Prince Harry and wasn't supposed to participate, but did anyway.
Now, in Princess Diana's case, she wasn't supposed to participate because of royal protocol, but it was important to her child so she kicked off her heels and lined up just like any other mom.
She raced, won, everyone cheered, it was a heartwarming story that made people fall in love with her even more. 1991 was a better year for it.
The Hannaford Story has ... a slightly different end.
Katie wasn't planning to participate because she's clumsy and everyone knows it, not because of any royal protocol. But it was important to her child so she lined up just like any other mom.
This isn't Hollywood so Katie wasn't suddenly able to run with miraculously perfect form and secure the win.
In the real world, clumsy people trip.
She made it a few steps, stumbled over her own feet, and faceplanted hard enough to send a shock wave through her body and hey, since her dress flew up over her head, everyone got to see it jiggle-jiggle!
Oh, and someone got it on video and the clip went viral so the whole world got to see it and men flooded her DMs calling her a MILF and saying gross man things.
And media outlets came looking for interviews to talk about it and show the clip over and over.
Katie was mortified at first, but this has blown up into a surreal and hilarious experience for her. Now she thinks of this as easily the funniest thing she's ever done.
She didn't win the race, but her sense of humor about it won the people's hearts. We love a relatable fail, don't we?
In fact people loved this fail so much that they made a trophy about it. It's shaped like a butt.
Because of course it is.
Elle Courtonel, the social media manager for Trophies Plus Medals said the company was so impressed with her fail and how she just rolled with it (literally) that the company decided she needed an award for it.
So they reached out, got a shipping address and let her know something would be coming in the mail.
That something was a little butt shaped trophy and a medal with a peach on it.
Elle explained:
"We designed the Bottom’s Up trophy and medal especially for Katie, as a thank you for making the nation smile.”
It's adorable.
Moral of the story?
Get out there and embarass yourself in the name of fun. You might get a trophy out of it.
Just make sure you wear nice underwear.
@GregAbbott_TX/X
