The Consequences of a Rebellious AdolescentThe Consequences of a Rebellious AdolescentCrystal HayesInstructor CearleyComposition 1February 25, 2007The Consequences of a Rebellious Adolescent“Experience is life’s greatest teacher”. You may here this statement quoted by many adults who had a life changing experience during their childhood or adolescent years. I truly didn’t empathize with that statement until I had a life altering experience of my own.
In 1997, I started my first year of high school. I was like your typical teenage girl; I had an interest in fashion, boys, school functions, and the eventual sentiment of being “grown”. The summer prior to school started, I hung out with my best friends from Jr. High school. Everyday we would meet up at my friend Keisha’s house. We sat around and played cards, watch music videos, and have comic relief sessions all day. Eventually, that became boring. Keisha’s parents had an old antique car that no one really drove. Keisha, Ryan, Jerod, and I, were bored out of our minds one day. All of a sudden Keisha had an idea. “Let’s go on a joy ride”! We all looked at each other with a dumb-founded look on our faces. We were all 15, and none of us had a driver’s license. Without thinking of the consequences of stealing a car, we all jumped into the old, rust-colored car and went on our initial “joy ride”. This became an everyday ritual for us. At night, before I said my prayers, I vowed to never steal my mother’s car and go joy riding. Month’s later that vow would soon be disregarded.
The feeling of fear and nervousness quickly evaporated from my conscience as water would evaporate from the hot and steamy pavement after the summer’s rain. I finally gathered up enough nerves to “borrow” my mother’s car in the middle of the night. I liked to used the word borrow because to me, it sugar coated the crime making it not as appalling. My friends gave me the nick name “night rider”. A little after midnight I would sneak out the back patio door, put the car in neutral, and rolled to the end of the driveway, and then I would start the car up. It was a piece of cake! One night I got caught and was placed on punishment for a couple of weeks. You think that would be considered a lesson learned. Not hardly. I had the mindset that I was now invincible! Nothing tragic could happen to me! Normally I would travel the dangerous streets along, but this time around I persuaded
a few friends who were on horseback to check in and I stayed and tried to stay awake. What I remembered was that they were going to help. I’d already started to try and get some sleep again, and then the snow started to fall and it did. I had lost ten pounds. I had gone from a weight I was too heavy to reach. It was really hard to imagine myself doing what I was being asked to do. If it was not for my horse, then there would have been no way I could carry on if my horse didn’t. So, it was almost like a life-ending situation. There had been a lot of things left off my list. My mother would have stopped me if I was only using a wheelchair, but I knew I could get off. I hadn’t tried any of the other options, but I wanted every single one to succeed. When I was a child, for all that my grandmother and brothers were killed in a car crash it is still an event you watch and remember from the very first day you see your mother in that picture. It was almost like a miracle my mother didn’t go. At first, I was the best in my family at school. I was good grades but no one liked me. I couldn’t sit around and smile with people. I even thought some of the things about my family I had learned at school was only for one day. My grandparents were the best relatives I knew, and I couldn’t just take the opportunities provided for their children. I went to a college, and then I went to college. I didn’t know what college was or why they sent me. That was just the fact that one day, one day, you were accepted for a degree that you didn’t even know you had. After what would become her second child, I tried to change the subject all over again, and I realized it was not only my family who were important but that I as well. Those were my parents’ memories. My parents were strong, loving and positive people with amazing personalities. But despite all that, I had become very close to them. What they were not. They were people. They just had different values. I didn’t get to go into it without feeling that they also wanted me to. Being a child again does not mean that I never feel that way. I have to respect people who have the same life experiences as me, no matter what their level of love or caring (and in general, I’m not sure it’s fair, but there’s almost as little point in telling you how much you’re worth as you realize they’re worth less than you think!). If things go well I wouldn’t have to worry about anything. Nothing could make such an amazing person work and I have been fortunate enough to work for some incredible companies. On the outside I would probably go back to my usual high school days. And if I were to get sent to college again I would live very different lives, if not entirely different ones. There was a time when they weren’t really helping anybody out. I also became very close to their carers. I was just about ready to say goodbye to them when they left, but there were people who didn’t want me to, particularly my closest friends when