Secret Santa

        My family has many family traditions; some are fun and some are not so fun.  One amazing tradition that I personally miss is playing Secret Santa every Christmas. My family always makes our holiday's fun and enjoyable but as we gradually ended playing Secret Santa started to feel normal and boring.  Playing Secret Santa was very entertaining and exciting because the whole family got together and played; thats one tremendous thing I miss. 

"As soon as tradition has come to be recognized as tradition, it is dead." 

~Allan Bloom 

I Want to Be Cool

        There are two important things that most of today's children don't think about before doing something they will regret; rules and consequences. And I, was one of those many kids. When I was in the 2nd grade everyone knew my class but, for the wrong reasons.  My room was the class with all the "bad kids."  These "bad kids" were look on as the cool cats in my grade; everything they did seemed like much fun even if they had something waiting for them on the other end of the road. It was pretty though and lifeless being the good student all the time so, when I saw my chance to hang with the "bad kids" I didn't let it slip.

       One day my teacher sent the cool cats down to the nurse's office to get their eye exams.  About thirty seconds after they left, she called me up and told me to catch up with the rest of the kids. I was so excited.  Right when I caught up to them they started to tell me their plan. I was a little nervous but I went for it any way.  "1, 2, 3 GO!" were the magic words that made everyone automatically disappear including myself.  Next thing I know we are all running around the school.  We ran and ran until we couldn't anymore. Then, we started again but this time when it was time to stop it was through force.  Mrs. Idontrememberhername was standing right in front of us with her arms crossed and her eyebrows pointing down to the ground. At that moment all that went through my head was, of course the time I join in they have to get in trouble!   After her never ending lecture, she walked us back to our class room.  I have never seen the "bad kids" so quiet and scared.  

        Just as we opened the door everyone looked back.  At that point I knew that the whole situation was about to be explained and I was just about to get in trouble for the first time.  While Mrs. Idontrememberhername told the story I noticed my teacher's smile flip the other way.

        Walking to my car after school was very scary.  I knew something was going to happen, my actions weren't just going to slide like that.  That day was when I realized that "following the crowd" isn't always a good and fun idea.

 "If they decided to jump off a bridge would you do it too?"