Awkward first dates and cringe interactions often linger in the mind, crafting the most mortifying memories. On Tuesday night in Crossroads, The Peel Literature and Arts Review hosted “Mortified,” an open mic night where students gathered to share their most embarrassing stories.
The Peel is App State’s student-run literature and arts magazine and a platform for students to share their creativity and express themselves through art in different mediums.
In terms of topics, nothing was off limits. From disastrous dates, comedy, poetry and relationship stories, students experienced moments of laughter and secondhand embarrassment.
Ember Jones, a senior biology major and editor-in-chief of The Peel, said the event has been going on for at least 10 years.
“Embarrassment is something we all try to avoid, but I think there’s something that we can make out of it that’s fun and encouraging,” Jones said.
Turning embarrassing moments into fun began with senior English major Violet MacIver taking to the mic to share her Reddit horror story. What began as a usual Reddit conversation traveled onto Discord, where MacIver found out this person was underage. MacIver shared that this story is one of the many stories she is compiling to share about her life.
“I’m currently calling it ‘The Miserable Misadventures of Me,’” MacIver said.
While the story may have been awkward, MacIver worked on reframing the story with some added humor.
“I definitely played it a little more for comedy, but I wasn’t expecting people to genuinely find it funny,” MacIver said.
For others, sharing their personal stories and poetry was a way to process and understand complex emotions.
Stephen Brice, a junior social work major, was inspired after hearing others speak, sharing his poem about a situationship. A situationship is a romantic or sexual relationship between two people without any labels.
“People were talking about situationships; I felt like that was a decent thing to share because that was kind of like the first situation I’d ever been in or, like, being interested in somebody to be honest,” Brice said.
He reflected on the confusion he felt trying to navigate his own situation, especially when things felt unclear.
Brice explained that although the two of them were interested in one another, he couldn’t sleep, staying up wondering about what was going on between them.
Although he was nervous about sharing these details, he said he utilized poetry to describe the situation the best he could.
“I genuinely never shared that with anyone, so I was kind of nervous,” Brice said. “My definition of poetry is bringing words to the unexplained.”
Katie Jackson, a junior social work major, shared in an Instagram direct message that she wrote a piece of poetry focused on finding acceptance in loss. Jackson said writing this piece presented a different creative process than her other poems.
“I feel like it’s very easy to put happy and positive feelings into words,” Jackson said. “Whenever you have something negative and dark like that, I think making it metaphorical for people makes people understand it more.”
Jones emphasized the importance of organizing these events and how her involvement with The Peel has impacted her.
“It’s the heart of my experience at App State, and it’s really important to see how art can affect people’s, you know, willingness to share and how it can change people’s opinion,” Jones said.