Happy Childhood Memories
In every human life, there is an unforgettable childhood experience. There could be many experiences or just one. These journeys can be good or bad and possibly end up beneficial or not. I have had a few bad ones. However, they occurred around times when I was trying to fit in and find my inner-self. In a sense, these experiences help to define my personality. In one way or another, bad experiences can lead to great success. Now I can talk about my experiences and what they led to. This is my story. Over the years between the third grade to the eighth grade, I have tremendously struggled with friendships.
To be popular was a big need during the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Kids were hanging out at basketball and football games, going to school dances, starting to date and have crushes on other students, and earn reputations throughout the school. Some students already had a reputation of being very `popular’ while some were trying to fit in. I was one of those students. However, as time went by, I started to fit in more with cliques and different groups of friends. It sounded great however; being popular also comes with consequences. There are rumors that could be spread about you or someone else with your name in it. Like read about memories? Read also Flashbulb memory!
Well, that’s what happened to me. I was a friend of a student named Lorena. Our friendship was really good that we would hang out after school with other friends after riding the school bus home. As our friendship grew, so did our trust between each other. She told me that she had a crush on another student. I felt so special and popular but my 15 minutes of popularity would not last long. One day, Lorena and I had an argument. I threatened to tell people about her crush on another student. In reality, I never told anyone about her crush. One day, I was threatened verbally by some of her friends and I felt so bad.
From that point on, I learned that being popular is not a big deal. Its consequences can put a damper on people’s lives and can put people under pressure such as my situation. That means, people will remember or you will remember how you used to be. In addition, people will see how you will handle situations under pressure. If you don’t come out strong, you will go from extremely popular to unrecognized. My 15 minutes of popularity was good to experience, but I’m glad the time was up. The consequences of being popular were more effective than the popular feeling itself. My last experience came with not being alert to public dangers.
The cause of this experience was partially my fault. I will never forget that day. I was in the 7th grade and it was either a Tuesday or Wednesday night at the Wizards game. I was with my after-school group. Some of us had separated and looked around the stores inside the MCI Center. I went into the Discovery Center with one of the students from the program. We looked around and enjoyed some of the scientific display models. On our way out of the Center, we happened to encounter these young teenagers or younger in the elevator with us. There were 3 of them who were from either DC or Maryland.
They looked sort of troubled but I was not giving them much attention. While in the elevator, one of them asked us for a dollar. I responded with saying of five dollars, which was larger than they asked for. From this moment, I was not street smart at because I was raised with out any street troubles and had no knowledge on how to be safe while you some talks to you that you do not know. My friend jumped out the elevator on purpose and left me in with the other guys. The three of them decided to tackle me and held me on the ground. Then, one of them reached in my pockets and took a dollar. I had realized I was just robbed.
After 5 seconds, the elevator made it to ground level. When I got exited the elevator, security and my after-school chaperones came and made sure everything was all right. I was in complete shock and people asked me about what happened and I said to them that they took a dollar from me. In my mind, I was thinking of what I could have done to make the situation better. The reminisce lasted several months. This incident put a major effect in my life and it changed my personality. I am much more cautious of my surroundings and whom I hang out with. I definitely learned a lot from this situation. Those were my unforgettable experiences.
I learned that being popular is not the best thing. If you just be yourself, people will accept you for who you are and not for what you are trying to be. Also, the elevator incident warned me that I need to be more alert of my surroundings. I should of never told those guys I had money in the first place. Secondly, I could have founded another way to get to the ground level once I saw those guys of what they’re appearance looked like. I really learned from these situations. It’s hard to predict when you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. Unless you use your senses, you definitely can determine what can happen.
These were great experiences for me to go through. If it were not for these experiences, I would be a fake fool and a mess. Now, I have a great personality and street smarts. I have made remarkable achievements. I am one of many people who probably went though experiences like that, that made a change for the better. This experience had a good and bad part of it, but there was a lesson learned from it. There will always be a lesson learned from any experience and they are a good way for people to look at if they are having problems themselves. Experiences are part of life.
