The school carnival was one of the days that I looked forward to the most throughout my elementary years. Getting to submerge my teachers in a tank of water after precisely striking the middle of the bullseye at the dunk tank, eating an infinite amount of cherry snow cones and soft cotton candy, and running around like a decapitated chicken was what I yearned to do. All of my classmates and friends got to do this while I stared at the glaring white corner of my small room. I sat there on a firm chair with no back to it and held back tears as I knew I was missing out for being a mischievous child. Even though I didn't want to admit it, I deserved to be in the corner.

It was one of those days where throughout the entire school day all I could think about was what I was doing after school. I was not doing anything extravagant, just the everyday routine of wasting time with my friends on my street. The school day slowly expired and my excitement speedily grew more intense. As soon as I got home I blazed through my homework, ate a poorly iced poptart, and hopped on my freshly oiled ripstik. Weston, Will, Zach, and Tony were all already at the end of the street seeing who could stay on their skateboards the longest without getting pushed off. I instantly joined in and started playing this rambunctious game. We knocked each other over and dinged up our legs for an unnecessary amount of time before we chilled in Zach’s driveway. Tony went inside and came back with the most recent hot toy at the time, a tech deck. He proudly exclaimed that at recess he traded two, 32 oz powerades for the prized possession. Everyone was fascinated by it and as a joke I grabbed the tech deck and started running, they all pursued me and starting catching up, I then made the motion as if I threw the tech deck into the grass on the side of the road. To my surprise, all four of them frantically inspected the grass for the toy. At first, I laughed, then I realized I could pull off one of the greatest heists of all time. With little hesitation I slipped the tech deck into my velcro pocket on my cargos. While they were still searching I walked over and asked if they had found it yet, they all sternly replied no. Being the “trustworthy” friend that I had been, I helped them search for an object that wasn’t there. Zach and the rest of my friends gave me looks as they returned to their houses on the street.

When I got home I was ecstatic to have the toy but also filled with guilt. It was getting late so I started getting ready for bed, scared that my mom would find the toy and wonder where it came from I hid it in one of my shoes. Once I went to bed I was itching with fear that she would look in my shoe and find the toy. Therefore, I decided the best option would be to hold the tech deck in my hand as tight as I could for the remainder of my sleep. Little did I know that during my sleep I would not have the same grip as when I was still awake. When I arose from my peaceful and energizing sleep the tech deck had slipped my mind and my hand. I got ready for school and when I turned into the kitchen I saw Medusa. My body turned to stone when my eyes landed on the tech deck in my mother's hand. Right away, I knew that she knew. Before I could blink she enforced that I would need to take the toy back to the rightful owner before school started. The back of my head was warm because of how ashamed and guilty I was. I grabbed the tech deck and took the usually short but insanely long walk to Tony’s house and knocked on the door. Tony answered and I handed him his toy and apologized, he was more happy to receive his toy back then he was mad at me for stealing it. When I arrived back home I learned that I would miss out on one of my favorite events, sad is an understatement for how I felt.

Being dishonest is never the right choice. I was fake to my friends and deserved to sit in the corner for the duration of the carnival. This lesson taught me to always be honest and that being a liar will have an everlasting effect on people. They can almost never look at you and say they can trust you 100%. My petty theft crime at a young age made me a better person today by teaching me to always be honest. Realizing that honesty is a quality of human that everyone needs to have at a young age was a blessing.