Adolescence, as much as it and I have tried to come to terms, has only troubled me thus far. Trying to overcome its evils makes it seem that no matter what I do, at every corner turned in life there is a dark alley waiting to swallow me up into its unruliness. And this dark alley is misterious and apealing and yet, its dismal appearance warns of its perils. It should be a flat-out warning that dark is bad... just as we learned when we were kids. And yet, the mistery of what lies under the unknown makes me hesitate. The thing is that people who do right do not have a reason to hide, therefore, they won't try to be oblivious to light. It is the safe to say that usually, those who work in sombruous surroundings are sure to be hiding from something.
Peer pressure is a reality, and in such a small school, word spreads pretty quick. I think that I fight to be unknown more than I fight to be known. And yet, what happens is that I always end up with the wrong stories. Stories that have been plotted and maneuvered under lurid skies and tenebrious alleys. And yet, I ponder: blessing or bad luck?
Last chemistry classs I realized that the Natural Gas valve was opened as I sat down after finishing to balance the chemical formula on the board. I have asthma, and when I sat down I realized that something was wrong. So I asked the boys if they had sprayed something and they denied, so my mind continued to seek an answer to the what was happening. Then, I remembered the boys playing with the gas valves. Furiously, I turned around: "Did you open the gas? I told you... I have asthma!" Their response was that they had asthma too and responded with a "No, no, we didn't." But I knew they had... I could hardly breathe. What should I do? I am not the type of person who tries to call atention to herself when she's sick, but I was feeling miserable and slightly desperate. I looked at the clock and saw that there were only three minutes until the bell, so I chose to not get the boys in trouble and suck up the asthma; the damage was already done anyway.
What was the right thing to do?
Today in school, the Seniors were trying to pull out a Food Fight of some sort in the cafeteria because everyone got crammed into the room in consequence of the merciless rain. A teacher was having lunch with us and we were talking about the blatant herd mentality at our school. The thing is that he came -because of the way the conversation was led- to ask me, "hypothetically, if you knew that an untactful prank of which you disagreed were to happen, would you sell your classmates. Would I? My outright answer was yes. And what I realized after a lot of thinking, is that I would.
The next thing that popped into my head was: Snitch! That was probably what I would be considered in the eyes of not only my classmates, but the entire school. Could anyone realize how difficult life would be after that? However, I came to the conclusion that I have had enough with my condoning attitude. Yes, people should be given second chances and whatever, but time and time again they have proved that they do not care about their education, about their own health and that they don't give a -swear word- about other people. So why do I have to continue to jeopardize my education, health, and life for people like this? Teacher's Pet, Snitch, Square ... whatever, if we stand for nothing we fall for anything. The truth is that a person's right to mess around ends when their actions are affecting other people's rights. And if they don't care for what is morally right and respectful and I cannot convince them by guiding them with sound logic, I have the same right of protesting and sabotaging their tactless prank as they have to organize the damned thing. So there....no more sitting on the fence, no more cowarding, no more protecting those who put at risk their own lives and those of others.
We could all have died in that class, and I should've said something and I didn't because I thought that I was being a good friend. I take that back, I was being a good classmate, because friends don't endanger each other's lives, and hencetofore, I won't put my own life on the line to save those who won't think twice before doing something that could bring peril to others and themselves.
