Said 'you too' to a waiter at 19 and my face still burns when I think about it
When I was 19 I said 'you too' when a waiter told me to enjoy my meal, and I walked out of that diner in Kalamazoo feeling like I needed a new identity. Back then I would replay stuff like that in my head for days, lying in bed at night just cringing over every weird thing I said that week. These days I brush off awkward stuff in about ten minutes because I have said way dumber things since, like calling my kid's teacher 'mom' at parent night last year. I think the change hit around 25, when I started noticing nobody else remembers your embarrassing moments because they are too busy replaying their own. Now I feel bad for 19 year old me instead of wanting to disappear, honestly. The weird part is the cringe never fully goes away, it just gets shorter and funnier. What is the one old awkward moment that still pops into your head out of nowhere?
Wiped my brain clean of every cringe moment except one from 2011 where I waved back at someone who was actually waving at the person behind me, so I just stood there in a parking lot waving at air like a broken robot. The real kicker is the guy behind me waved back too, so for one beautiful second there were two idiots waving at nobody. Honestly your thing about 25 is spot on, something clicks where you realize everyone is the star of their own dumb movie and you are just a background extra in theirs. I still think about that parking lot wave maybe twice a year and now it just makes me laugh instead of wanting to move to another state. Saying you too to a waiter is basically a rite of passage, that guy forgot about it before your food even got cold.