The moment you think everyone will remember forever is forgotten by most of them before lunch.

Other people are almost entirely occupied with themselves, which is bad news for the ego and excellent news for your worst moments. The thing you replayed for a month barely made it into anybody else’s afternoon. They were busy running their own tape about something you never even noticed.

When shame loops on something you did, try naming one embarrassing thing a classmate did last month. Usually you cannot. That blank is the actual size of the audience, and the situation is far more survivable than it feels from the inside.