My most embarrassing moment took place at the outset of a new semester at UT. I was in the first meeting of a lab section taught by a charming local celebrity. Unfortunately my bank account balance sat at $0.41 so I had yet to purchase the course's required textbook. We were asked to do grammar exercises in the textbook so my neighbor and I partnered with a more responsible student with a book to tackle the homophones as a team. We took turns doing the exercises, which meant I wound up only doing a third of them myself. Once everyone had finished up the class took turns reading answers aloud. When it came time for me to give an answer, it was for a question completed by one of my teammates. I didn't really sweat it since my team seemed to be a sharp group of guys, so I casually glanced at the book and read what my partner had written. The instructor looked slightly puzzled at my answer and asked me to repeat what I had said. Stupidly I repeated the answer verbatim. My first hint that I had just sounded like a moron was the fact that this was an exercise in using homophones and I had just pronounced two entirely different words. My second hint was a volley of muffled giggles coming from behind me. I had read the first word without any context or consideration and my brain immediately read the word wreak as wreck. Once I realized my mistake I was absolutely devastated, but at that point there was nothing I could do. I had just been pegged as an idiot by the entire class on the first day, but I put on a brave face as I accepted my fate as social pariah.
