The Consequence of Secrets

My 6th grade year I went through my little pre-teen rebellious phase. I was hanging out with people who would swear and have boyfriends which I was not allowed to do. I was in 6th grade and wanted to be like my friends and fit in, so obviously I started swearing and I downloaded snapchat which was also a big no no for my parents. And one night I was talking in the group chat of people on my bus that I wanted desperately to be like, and I got myself a boyfriend, which, like I said, was very much not allowed. When I went to bed that night I was happy that I had a boyfriend even though I had no clue what that entailed. But that morning when I woke up the anxiety of lying to my parents kicked in. It was so bad it made me sick, so I asked to stay home, I tried sleeping but I just couldn’t so I decided that I was going to tell my mother what I did and ask for advice on what to do because I definitely didn’t want to date that boy, I just wanted to say that I had a boyfriend. This decision of me telling the truth got my phone taken for a month which sucked in the moment, but it was definitely the best decision. After the resentment from the punishment passed and the embarrassment of doing what I did was gone, I realized how much that situation really taught me.

That mistake showed me that the people that I was hanging out with definitely were not the best people for me. They led me down a path that was opposite of my values and what I wanted to do with my life. Being around this group of kids ruined that progress with my academics that I had made the previous year. Wanting to fit in with them so badly made me less motivated to graduate and more motivated to participate in things that I knew I should not be doing.

After I finally came to my senses about my so-called friends I became more confident in who I am and less desperate to fit in with my old friends and anyone for that matter. I learned how to be confident from that mistake, which is so important for success. This “mistake” put me on the track to becoming the person I actually was rather than the person I was so desperate to be. I put mistakes in quotes because nothing is ever truly a mistake. Every decision that I make and every action that I choose to do I believe is for a reason. Much like this mistake where I learned to have confidence in myself, everything teaches you a lesson that helps you to be the person that you are supposed to be. You just have to choose to look at your mistakes that way, rather than dwelling on what you did and how you could have done it better.

“The Secret” by the Italian voice is licensed under CC BY 2.0.