My experience will last a lifetime in my eyes, not everyone gets
wrapped up in that extent of peer pressure and comes out on top and on the fast
track to success. I was once told that the children whom get in trouble with
the judicial system earlier in life are normally the ones who learn from it,
come out with their head on their shoulders. As opposed to the mid to elder age
that get in trouble with the law typically have that kind of troubled future.
Not necessarily though just a statement that I was once told by the Sergeant of
Suquamish Police Department. Being that the extent of my committed offense was
not damaging, nor stealing, or doing anything of the sort, other than a mere
trespassing, still not good- but being that it wasn't as big of a crime to an
extent.. I learned a lot from the experience, I learned that peer pressure is
never a good thing unless they are pressuring you to do better in your
schooling or in your life. It was hard on me because my family had expected so
much more from me to do better things and I had simply just made one mistake
and hung out with the wrong crowd for a week or so.
I learned that even if life
brings you down a road of confusion, and pressure, that anyone and everyone
could better their lives and get on a great path to doing what they love. I
have my athletic medicine teacher to thank for having faith in me that I can
and will do better things in life and helped me choose my career path and
pushed me to do better in my schooling.. If it weren't for him I probably would
still be with the wrong crowd of people and be partying every weekend in
college and not doing my homework instead of focusing on my long-term goal of
medicine. I am so happy to finally have my path figured out, anything can
happen I just have to keep these eyes open and subject to anything life throws
at me.
Peer Pressure- noun; Influence from members of ones peer group,
as I’m sure everyone knows what peer pressure is and what it does to the
younger aged people in the high school education years. Most people choose to
stay out of peer pressure while others fall subject to the mistakes that can be
led from it. It all started one night when I received a text message asking me
to sneak out my bedroom window and wear all black, I had no idea as to what we
were doing, but was already nervous due to the fact I had never snuck out of my
house before this moment. In the pitch black of the night I find myself in a
parked car in the woods not a clue as to where we are, we all get out of the
car and walk to a new high school, the group wanting to “have some fun”, we
throw a ninja rope up on the top of the building and climb up the side of the
building. My mind flooding with thoughts of delinquency and imprisonment I was
too afraid to call my parents as I was in fear of getting in trouble. We open
the door on the roof and climb down the ladder, we’re in.
As soon as we entered the school, the members of the group
immediately start rolling around in garbage cans in a childish manner. I
proceed by sitting against the wall like a frightened puppy while falling subject
to this foolishness. I ask myself is this worth getting in trouble for? I should probably call my parents.. yet no, I
stay. I stay for fear of waking up my parents at two o’clock in the morning,
for a little hope that the authorities will not come and take us away. Looking
up at the entrance of the school I see a car outside, I look closer and it
appears to be a police car. Thoughts of anxiety and dismay overwhelm me as we
run back up to the roof. One of the members of the group had also obtained a
police scanner and had multiple things of which I have forgotten due to how
long ago this was, in the bag that he had brought which made it seem like we
were trying to burglarize the place. One second I find myself and the others hiding
in a heating room on the roof waiting for the police to go away, the next
second I remember being pulled out of the room with everyone else at gunpoint,
the police dogs being there, all the lights from the fire truck that were used
to lift the officers onto the roof. We go back inside from the point of entry
on the rooftop and are all handcuffed and taken to the prison.
Upon entering I was fingerprinted, had my picture taken,
stripped down to my skivvies, searched from head to toe, had to take a cold
shower, put on an orange jump suit, give them my clothes and phone, everything.
It was not a lovely sight for me and it was a real eye opener. A call was made
to my parents that their daughter was in prison and they needed to come pick
her up, my parents went into my room to tell me they were going to pick up my
sister from jail only to find pillows stuffed under my sheets and I wasn’t in
bed. So what my parents did is they called the jail back, and told them to
leave me there, teach her a lesson, scare her into never doing it again. They
didn’t put me in a cell right away they just put me in their holding room which
had a bed, they told me I didn’t seem like I belonged there. There were three
days before my 16th birthday and it just so happens that I remained
in the cell until the day of my birthday and needless to say I didn’t receive
any gifts or presents for my birthday either, I had my phone, computer, life
taken away and was estranged by my parents, it really taught me a great lesson
in life and when you make mistakes you have to suffer the consequences.
Upon returning back to school I found that I had been removed
from all my classes because I hadn’t been for three days with no calls or
anything. A newspaper article was posted about the incident with no names
mentioned but it stated that a 15-year-old minor was with a group of 18-year-old
kids and told the whole story. Embarrassing, I didn’t want to tell a soul about
my disgrace of a mistake I had made. Surprising that someone cared enough to
read the newspaper and put two and two together and confront me about the
situation. My athletic medicine teacher called me into his office that day and
asked me straight forward, “what’s going on, Megan. I’m guessing that was you I
read about in the paper so tell me, what were you thinking?” He went on to ask
me what I am going to do with my future and what am I interested in. We talked
longer and decided that since I have always been a fan of medicine I would want
to go to nursing school.
I am so glad in the end that I was able to have an experience
like I did because it really did teach me a life lesson, it was more of a slap
in the face, get your act together Megan. Well it worked, I am so happy that I am
working as a CAN with my foot in the door, applying for nursing schools around
the state of Washington, after nursing school I am determined to go to med
school, I really want to be a general surgeon, yet the heart fascinates me and I
loved learning about it and the way the blood flows throughout the body, I will
know more as I progress but for now I am devoted to school and working towards
a greater future. I learned a very valuable lesson.
