Stowaway

 When I was growing up, I had a best friend. Her name was Amy, and I wanted to spend all my time with her. Our family and her family had a lot in common. The same number of kids, 9, and we were all homeschooled. That’s pretty hard to find a family like that, but we did, and they are the best. 

One day they came to our house and we had so much fun. They were getting ready to go, and my sister and I, and some of their kids came up with the best idea ever! They had a large van with several benches, and the best idea ever was that my younger sister and I would hide under one of the benches in the back and go home with them! It was brilliant! Then we could keep playing at their house, and the fun wouldn’t have to end. All of us kids were on board. We climbed under the bench as planned, and their mom came out to the van, and we were on our way! 

It was clever and fun until we pulled into their driveway and their mom discovered the little stowaways. She wasn’t impressed.  In fact, not only was she not impressed, but she was mad. What seemed like a great idea had, in fact, been a terrible idea. I seriously blocked out her reaction, but my sister didn’t. She could remember our friends' mom having to call our mom and then bring us home.

I was humiliated. I was a child who was very careful not to get into trouble. I’m sure I did all the time, but I was very sensitive about getting an adult upset. That always felt bad. This time it was partially my idea! I caused upset adults with this idea. 

As time went on, I was so embarrassed about this incident. Over the years, it would get brought up with our two families, and I always wanted to melt into the floor and disappear. As an adult, I see things differently, and I realize that yes, I made a choice that upset others, but there was nothing really to be embarrassed about. Kids make choices ALL THE TIME that they believe are brilliant ideas when they are kind of stupid. So, in the end, I was a normal kid with brilliantly stupid ideas.