Paper #1

Khody Golden

Professor Sonia Begert 

English 101

25 April 2014

                                            Positive Outcomes from Negative Choices

       There are many quotes that state the same basic meaning, and that is, you learn from all your mistakes. I did not know the truth in this statement until I made a big enough mistake to really open my eyes.

        This mistake was my freshman year in high school, when I was young and probably the most unintelligent I ever was. This took place at North Kitsap High School on a bright Monday afternoon. I remember the day very vividly, in fact I remember that this particular day I had a bad feeling in my stomach, but I didn’t think much of it. I was outside during our lunch break and my friends and I were playing hacky sack. My friends were Nick, Eli, and Jalen. They were, and still are, some pretty good acquaintances of mine. Jalen had mentioned going off campus for something during lunch, but I didn’t hear what exactly he said or where he said they were going.

        My friends look over at me and ask if I would like to come with them, and me being the dumb freshman kid I was, said yes. Without even questioning where we were going. We had walked across the school, and my friends were looking around at all the people and acting very suspicious. We finally arrive over at the side of the Tech building, and we all stop. At this point I still have no clue what is going on, I figured we just moved our hacky sack circle to over here.

         Jalen then proceeds to set down his bag, reach in, and pulled out a pipe and a bag of marijuana. It is not until this moment I realize what is going on, and now it is too late, I am guilty by association at this point. I recall being more nervous than I had ever been, my stomach got even more upset. He smokes on some of it and passes it the other way, but eventually it gets to me. I had never smoked before, and I figured it would be okay because that’s what my friends were doing. I took the hit, inhaled the smoke, and then blew it out. As soon as this cloud of smoke clears, I see a face in the distance.

         That face was that of our school security guard. Now this is much more than I had anticipated for my day. My first reaction is to attempt to get rid of the evidence and run. I then throw the pipe into the sticker bushes, glance at my friends, and get ready to run. As I turn to go, I see another security guard to block the other path out. I was trapped. I remember just thinking in my head “My mom is going to kill me”.

         We were then escorted into the office, where the police had already been called and were waiting for us to arrive at the office. This had to be the longest most miserable walk of my life. I didn’t know what was going to happen next and I recall at least 1,000 thoughts and worries that crossed my mind. We arrived at the office to the entire head school faculty along with some police officers. They asked us to each write statements, and I refused to talk or write anything until my mom had arrived. I remember trying to give no information to the police in order to try and save myself from any trouble I could. My mom shows up to the school, and I remember the disappointment in her face so vividly that it is stuck with me forever. After all the talking and paperwork was done at the school I was suspended from school for 20 days and was not arrested. My mother was so distraught; she wouldn’t even speak to me for 3 days after the fact. I knew I had messed up big time.

        When my mother finally decided to speak to me again, she let me know how disappointed and angry was, she couldn’t understand why I would be so dumb. I had no explanation for myself and felt like I had let my entire family down. I began to feel sorry for myself, like it was never going to get better since I have a criminal record now. I only felt this way for a short period of time. The next feeling I had about this situation was one that made me quit moping around and to fix things.

        From this point on I have always watched who I associated myself with. I also bettered myself as an individual. I realized that what I was doing and who I was hanging out with was not going to get me anywhere in life. I made many big changes in my life and during this process I happened to pick up a new hobby, lifting weights. Now I lift every single day, and use all my extra energy for something positive.

        I took this negative event from my life, learned from my mistake, and ended up with a positive outcome. It was all in the way I decided to handle it, I could have sat back and just let my life slowly but surely get more and more out of control. I chose to do something and use this mistake as an opportunity to fix things that I did. That is why this experience is so important and memorable to me. Even though it was a terrible and negative thing, it helped me shape who I am today. I managed to turn this into a good thing for my life. After all was said and done, my mother was very proud of the progress and changes I had made. I also will never forget that face she made when I had manned up and completed my community service to complete all of my court requirements. Seeing her face filled with ultimate joy and relief, made it one of the most memorable and important moments of my life.