The moment I spilled coffee all over my teacher’s desk

July 6, 2015, a Monday during the summer before my freshman year, marks one of the most embarrassing moments of my entire life.

That summer, I spent six weeks taking a geometry class at Archbishop Mitty High School. The intensive workload was not the best way to spend my summer but, luckily, the class was filled with some of my closest friends.

I returned to class the Monday after the long weekend of Fourth of July. Class started promptly at 8 a.m. and we needed to have our homework stapled and turned in before then. In an effort to turn in my homework on time, I rushed to the front of the class to grab the stapler and staple my two homework sheets together. But as my hand rapidly reached for the stapler, my elbow knocked down my teacher’s Starbucks coffee at the edge of his desk, staining dozens of papers.

The entire class stopped what they were doing to simply stare at my mistake in silence. As my legs were shaking in fear, I could barely speak as I waited for my teacher to turn around and witness what I did.

Moments later, he turned around and I knew my grade for the next three weeks hung in the balance.

As I worked up the courage to explain what happened, I heard the quiet laughs of my friends distracting me from getting my words out straight.

I began apologizing, but it didn’t take him long to realize what happened. He quickly reassured me that it was OK.as he grabbed a box of tissues from his desk. I immediately grabbed a handful and started to pat the coffee off his papers. Unfortunately, the coffee had already done its damage and my attempt to clean up was simply an act of courtesy.

Luckily, the teacher was very considerate and understood my mistake, which made me feel better about it. Teachers can be strict at times, but in my experience, it's rare to find them making their students feel even worse than they do already after clumsy or stupid mistake.