Leah Bitsky ’12
Staff Writer

A freshman boy broke my fall. It was 7:30 AM and I was walking through the crowded cafeteria to put my sports bag in a cubby.

As I walked confidently through the freshman ghetto, thinking I was the bomb being a sophomore and all, my field hockey stick got caught in a seat and positioned itself in front of my legs. I tripped over my stick, and thankfully caught myself by crashing into a nice and squishy 9th grade boy. Although I did not fall flat on my butt, I was still completely mortified and my face turned bright red. But why do human faces turn that awful shade of purply-pink when the human becomes embarrassed?

Researchers say that when you are embarrassed, your body involuntarily releases adrenaline which causes blood vessels to expand so that the blood flow and oxygen delivery improves.
The veins in your face respond to a signal that instructs the veins to allow the adrenaline to start working. The veins in your face open up, allowing more blood to flow through them, and that is why your face reddens. Basically the adrenaline makes blood rush to your cheeks.

However, believe that it is simply nature’s way of shoving in my face the fact that I am NOT the bomb. The whole world can know what I am thinking by looking at what color my face has turned…excellent.
Out of all the amazing things that human bodies can do, blushing is by far the dumbest. Its sole purpose is to make the situation worse.

So, next time someone catches you picking your wedgie, tripping over yourself, or writing “I love [insert-hottie’s-name-here]” in hearts all over your notebook, just know that you can’t play it off or pretend like you didn’t notice them looking. Once your cheeks heat up, your secrets out. There’s no way around it you can’t even pretend anymore.But really, why should you be embarrassed? Everybody messes up.

That cool soccer player who walks down the halls like he owns the place, all chill and sure of himself, has also tripped over his shoelace, so don’t even sweat it.

The thing is, if you didn’t think that people noticed your mess up, you probably wouldn’t blush. Does anyone care if you trip yourself in an empty room? No. But it’s a different story when you don’t know about something that you SHOULD be embarrassed about.

I can’t tell you the number of times when I came home from school, looked in the mirror, and realized I had a piece of that afternoon’s lunch stuck in between my teeth, or that my hair was sticking straight up so that I shared a close resemblance to a cockatoo.

Or what about that teacher that lectures for 45 minutes straight on scary equations that while his or her zipper is undone.

These are perfect examples of when a person should be bright red, but just isn’t, because he or she has absolutely no stinkin’ idea.

But I guess sometimes its better not to know, because then at least you’re not florescent red. And just a tip: if you’re ever standing next to a blusher, never say “OH MY G-D! YOU’RE BRIGHT RED!” It’ll just make them redder.