Your future kids won’t care that you got embarrassed at eighteen. They’ll care that you tried.

Embarrassment feels permanent while it is happening and has an unusually short life outside your own head. The people who witnessed it forget within a week, and the version that survives long term is only the fact that you attempted something. Fear of humiliation is a real feeling attached to a temporary event.

When you are weighing an attempt against the risk of looking foolish, extend the timeline. Ask whether this will be a story or a scar in five years. Most of them are stories, and only the untried things stay heavy.