Today’s topic: Write about a time you screwed up – a mistake you made.
Today’s Blogtember topic is a tough one. Which mistake do I pick? Which one has made an impact? Is there one worth noting? One of the things I pride myself on when thinking about past mistakes, especially those epic ones, is that 99.9% of them happened and something better occurred in it’s place (or because of it). So it’s hard to say that you make a mistake and really get pummeled internally by it – sometimes it opens new doors and windows to opportunities you couldn’t imagine existed.
One time that I messed up (and was mortified and completely embarrassed) was back in 6th grade. A girl and I were swapping notes back and forth in class – you know those cool intricately folded up notes from the 90s?
I can’t remember exactly what we were talking about but vaguely remember it started as asking what each other were doing over the weekend. We lived near each other and I think we were trying to make plans to hang out. Well. It escalated pretty quickly (not a fight) and before I knew it, the note was ravaged with curse words galore! I don’t remember that we were in an argument, I think we were just trying to “out-do” each other in the beautiful language we were both experimenting with.
Well, on it’s way back up to me our teacher happened to walk by. (And I completely blame the other girl for getting caught because she was not “looking out” for the teacher) The teacher snatched up the note and looked at us and said (verbatim): “OH! What do we have here!?” My heart sunk. My head hurt. I knew I was in for loads of trouble.
In my household, you didn’t get in trouble. I was supposed to be the good girl and to behave when I went to school. It didn’t always happen, but I knew that if school called home and woke my dad up from sleeping (since he worked a 3rd shift job when I was in elementary school) that $h*t was about the hit the fan. Once she opened the note, she saw the nasty language we had been spreading back and forth with each other and her eyes popped open. We were immediately sent to the Principal’s Office. My life was ruined (well, that’s how it felt). My dad was called in to talk to the principal – she told him that it was unacceptable behavior. I don’t blame her. My partner-in-crime and I were both handed one week after school detentions as punishment. DETENTION!
My heart sank. Only degenerates went to detention. The “bad” kids. Who was I going to walk home from school with when I was 45 minutes behind the bell? We sat in the hallway on the first floor right by the entrance doors. We all had to sit separately in chairs and were required to write a sentence 100 times before we could leave. I’m not really sure what I promised to 100 times over, but I remember that my 6th grade self was fuming and a friendship was already semi-shattered. I was embarrassed in front of the classroom a few hours earlier, I was embarrassed sitting among other students I didn’t associate with, I was embarrassed when my dad found out about my actions and I was embarrassed when I returned home every night that week after my 45 minutes sitting in that hallway.
I think I definitely learned a lesson after that experience. I think it was truly one of the first experiences I had realizing that I had a reputation and what did that mean to myself and my family? What impact my actions had on how other people thought of me. It’s also safe to say that I limited to whom and how often I passed notes to others from there on out.
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