Personal Narrative: The Social Norm

It was January 29th, 2012, and I felt as though I was just thrown under a bus. My life as I knew it, was changed forever. This metaphorical bus taught me a lesson... that being loyal, and doing the right thing, aren’t always the same. People try to live up to a standard, but most of the time, this is just the societal norm. Being faithful in a friendship, can conventionally be necessary, but it's never worth lying over, and that's where I went wrong.

As I began walking to Mrs. Peterson’s classroom, I heard someone say from a distance, “Michael, I failed my test.”

“Jake I know it's you, and what do you mean by, you failed your test?” As the outline of his body became more clear to me, he said “I failed it.”

“How could that be? Let me see that

P cheered.

“I got a perfect score! Thanks for helping me pass the test! This was really easy, next year, I’m just going to cheat off of you on all of my tests.” Jake whispered.

After a decade of temperance, I slammed my fist on the table, and shouted “Alright, I’m sick of this! I had to lie to a teacher, just to help you cheat! I did the wrong thing in the first place, and I should never have done that!”

“You mean you regret helping your friend out?” he whimpered.

“No, I regret hurting you! This has taught you nothing, one day when you go to college, or when you’re an adult, you will have to do some tough things on your own, and these tests have been preparing you for making educated decisions, because there is nobody for you to cheat off of, once you’ve become an adult.”

At that moment, Mrs. P stood up, towering over both of us, and said “I’m very disappointed in both of you for lying to me. But, I understand the circumstances, and I’m willing to give both of you, another shot. Be at my room on Monday to retake the test, both of you.” Mrs. Peterson stated. That, is how both me, and Jake, learned how to have a mutually beneficial