So I have always been a very avid rule follower. I think following the rules is a good thing and I feel horribly bad when I break them. Maybe that makes me a square, but I don’t care!
So let me tell you about a time I broke the rules.
When I was little my mom had a big tub of blow pops. You know those lollipops that are sugary candy on the outside and crappy bubble gum on the inside? Well anyway, so my mom had this big thing of blow pops and she’d give them to me and my siblings only when we were really REALLY good. The blow pops were such a magical candy and it was a great reward whenever we received them.
One day when I was like 4 or 5, I decided to take a blow pop without permission and sneakily eat it. I was such a rebel. I think it was watermelon or sour apple flavored because those were the best ones and I mean if you’re gonna steal you might as well go big and steal the best blow pop. The lollipop was delicious, but I felt a horrible sense of guilt immediately after eating it. I did my best to ignore the feeling and continue my life as a rebel living on the edge.
I did a pretty good job ignoring my horrible guilt, but that night it ate me alive. I tossed and turned, but I couldn’t sleep because I felt so bad. I had stolen a blow pop. Those blow pops were for only when we were extra good. They were a precious reward my mom bestowed on us out of the kindness of her heart and I took that kindness and ruined it. I knew I had been extra bad by not only stealing but stealing something so special. I felt sick about it.
I eventually couldn’t take the guilt. I got up in the middle of the night and went to my mom’s room. I was sobbing I felt so bad about this awful crime I had committed. I quietly crept up to my mom’s bed and nudged her awake.
She probably was worried that something was seriously wrong that caused me to wake her up in the middle of the night like I wasn’t a kid who would climb into my parents’ bed if I got scared or something. It was fairly unusual for me to wake my mom up in the middle of the night and usually when I had done this in the past it was pretty much only to inform my mom that I had thrown up somewhere and obviously she needed to know about it immediately.
So my mom was probably worried that my coming to her sobbing was going to result in her having to clean up vomit or solve some other catastrophe.
But I’m pretty sure she was not expecting me to start blubbering, “I stole a blow pop!” But that’s what I did.
Now I don’t actually remember my mom’s response but I’m pretty sure it was just something like “Oh no! But I see you’ve learned your lesson now go to bed.” I’m almost certain my mom said something just to get rid of me and probably didn’t really care about the lollipop in the first place but just wanted to be left alone to sleep in peace.
I do, however, remember for a fact that I felt so much better after confessing my horrible sin, and went back to bed and immediately went to sleep. Sobbing is pretty tiring work.
It seems pretty silly to be so upset over a lollipop, but at the time that was the worst thing I had ever done and it felt terrible. But also, this just really shows how I never was good at breaking rules. I like following the rules and if I ever don’t, I always feel pretty bad about it.
So I guess the moral of the story this time is maybe to simply follow the rules. “Rules are made to be broken” is a load of crap. Rules are made to be followed, but that doesn’t mean rules can’t change. For instance, when I was little, I was only allowed to have four cookies for snack, but now I’m allowed to have as many cookies as I want. Also just think about it before you do something you know is bad, because I promise the momentarily delicious blow pop is not worth a night of sickening guilt.