We’re all collectors of misadventure merit badges — those important life lessons we learn when things go sideways. I’d love to hear about your blunderful experiences and what they taught you!
To submit a story, fill out the form below. And each month, I’ll feature a selection of them here on Badge of Awesome.
Here are a few tips to get you started:
- Shorter is better. Try to keep your submission under 750 words.
- Your submission should be a true story (i.e., not fiction).
- Profound is great, but avoid getting too heavy. As a humour site, we’re looking for stories that may not have been funny at the time but can be laughed at in hindsight.
- Be sure to include a little life lesson about what the experience taught you. For inspiration, check out other stories on the site.
- Great stories don’t require exotic locations. Everyday misadventures make great fodder for submissions.
Although we review every submission, not every story will be published on Badge of Awesome. However, by submitting your story, you’re agreeing to let us publish it on this website. And if we do feature it, we’ll be sure to send you a link!
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at joshmartinink@gmail.com.
Looking for inspiration? Check out these other stories.
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Chapter 5: The Christmas Concert – What starring as a tree taught me about finding my voice
My spectacularly underwhelming poetry recital wasn’t the only time I’ve appeared on stage. In fact, my theatrical CV stretches all the way back to my breakout performance as Ant #2 in our kindergarten concert, “The Ants Go Marching In.” A meaty role to be sure: my character’s arc involved stopping to tie my shoe as […]
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Chapter 6: The Super Something – What blood and glue fumes taught me about vulnerability
Even at a young age, you’d often find me hunched over a notebook writing short stories. So when our grade 3 teacher told us we had to submit a bit of fiction for the local fall fair, I was more than a little excited. Because it was time to introduce the world to one of […]
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Chapter 7: The Dare – What wearing a clay helmet taught me about bad habits
As the assessor from the school board quizzed me about my pastimes and interests, I knew well enough to omit a few details. Bleeding all over the place during the interview was bad enough. If he knew about half the moronic things I did with my siblings, there’s no way I’d have qualified for the […]
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Chapter 8: The Cannonball – What Meghan in the mud taught me about letting go
Rest assured, I wasn’t the only Martin bested by a pit of clay. When we were kids, the arrival of spring’s warmer weather motivated Saturday outings to a place we lovingly referred to as the Death Cliffs — a section of high muddy riverbanks near our home in southwestern Ontario (and not nearly as terrifying […]
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Chapter 9: The Fireball – What a flaming tennis ball taught me about nurturing imagination
Growing up, my family’s idea of a good time extended beyond dunking various body parts into clay. In fact, there was no shortage of creative shenanigans whenever we got together with our cousins. And we got away with a lot of it, as my mom and dad weren’t exactly helicopter parents. In part, that’s because […]
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Chapter 10: The Frying Pan – What towel-snapping taboos taught me about pushing your luck
Although our antics outside the home may suggest otherwise, our lives were far from lawless. Like most households, we were governed by a variety of rules — from strict bedtimes and cookie limits to the schedule of chores taped to the door of the kitchen pantry. The fart chair was another law of the land. […]
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Chapter 11: The Haybale – What a tough day in the barn taught me about having someone to watch your back
We never received an allowance for doing chores like drying the dishes. Which was probably fair, considering how much we owed Mom for all the dish towels we ruined in our snapping wars. And since my pitiful pitch at the board game company failed to attract the million-dollar contract I was hoping for, I needed […]
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Chapter 12: The Babysitting Gig – What banshee babies and buttered butts taught me about failing forward
Farm work was just one way Nicholas and I made a few bucks. When we were teenagers, our aunts and uncles would also hire us to babysit their little rugrats — a questionable decision considering how bad we were at keeping a watchful eye on our boss in the hayloft. And in many ways, stacking […]
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Chapter 13: The Sledgehammer – What a construction job taught me about using the right tools
To be honest, I thought using a butter knife to apply diaper cream was a clever solution. Unfortunately, not all our innovative workarounds proved as successful. A good example was during the summer of 1997, when Nicholas and I were part of a construction crew building a new pig barn near our home. The team […]