The Consequences of a Rebellious Adolescent

Crystal Hayes

Instructor Cearley

Composition 1

February 25, 2007

The 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