When I was ten years old I knew the
difference between right from wrong. I
knew it was wrong to lie, steal, cheat, be disrespectful, make jokes at others
expense, talk back to a parent or teacher, etc. I understood that these ideas
and actions were morally wrong or against the law. Yet, I also understood that sometimes
people’s own personal desires proved to be stronger than their moral
understandings and behavior. I knew that
I too was often tempted by my own desires to push my conscience aside to the
corner of my mind. That little voice
telling me that what I’m doing is wrong is just going to have to wait. Yet, somehow I almost always managed to stop
myself before any real harm was done.
So when I sat in the back of the
classroom knowing not a single answer to the questions sitting in front of me,
I felt that temptation to peer over at my neighbor’s paper. I kept telling myself it wouldn’t hurt them.
It wouldn’t hurt anyone. No one will know.
Why is this such a bad thing? For those few seconds I was fully prepared
to cheat off my classmate’s paper. I had seen plenty of people do it before and
not get caught. Why couldn't I do it? No
one would see or know. Yet the one part of my brain that knew it was morally
wrong stood its ground. I spent about
fifteen minutes sitting there deciding whether or not I should cheat. I hadn’t paid attention in class and it was a
pop quiz so it was quite obvious that I would fail it if I didn't cheat. I kept telling myself, I should fail
this. This is my punishment for not
caring or bothering to listen in class.
It took all my willpower to do the
right thing and not cheat. I got my quiz
back a week later and sure enough, I had received a C-. And although I should have been angry at
myself for doing so poorly, all I could feel was relief for making the right
choice and not cheating. I deserved the
grade I got. To add to my relief, the
student I was considering cheating off of did worse than me. When I saw that, I knew it was ironic and
slightly fated. Had I cheated, karma
would have been slapping me in the face with an even worse grade.
The next weekend I found myself
sitting in my Sunday school room when my teacher said, “I’m going to ask you all
a question and I want you to answer honestly.
If you all were given a test that determined whether you had an A or a B
in a class and you hadn’t studied for the test, would you cheat to get an A or
fail the test and get a B? And if you cheat, no one will know and you will not
get in trouble.” I watched as each
student anonymously turned in their answers.
The count was in. Over 50% of the
students would have cheated to get an A.
I was one of the few who could honestly answer that they would do the
right thing and not cheat. I have been
forever proud of that.
I really liked the event you picked to write about. I think everyone has had to make the same choice one time or another, so they can relate to your story. The details are great too, especially when you are describing your decision and what was going through your mind. I could understand exactly how you felt because of the details you used. Also, I liked how the end was like Two with the statistics. The part about the other kid getting a worse grade and karma was funny and really good too. However, you could have used more similes or metaphors. Maybe you could have used another easier decision you had to make, like choosing a color to paint your room or something, as a metaphor for this moral decision. The only other thing is the last paragraph seems a little rushed with not as many details as the other ones.
ReplyDelete- Kaitlyn