Apologize

Before I start this post, I just want to point out that my dad and I have a great relationship now. I love my dad. He's been my greatest supporter in my adult-life so far. He's overprotective of me and I'm not sure if he realizes some of the English words he uses are hurtful, but we all have rocky moments with our parents. 

So like I stated in my previous post...I was disciplined a lot more harshly for a "sex"-related issue than Kenneth was when I was younger. I assume it was because I'm a girl, but my parents are hypocritical when it comes to most things.

If you have noticed, there are quotation marks around the word sex. This is because I don't find my situation to even remotely be comparable to what Kenneth did.

One bored afternoon I was surfing the internet on one of those joke websites. I came across the Alien Wife Swap joke. I was a young, immature teenager and found the joke hilarious and wanted to share the joke with my sister. Soooo...I printed the joke out for her to read. Well one way or another, the piece of paper that the joke was printed on was left around the computer and my dad found it. Needless to say, he did not find the joke funny at all.

He began yelling obscenities at me. As I crawled into my bed bawling my eyes out under my covers to get away from him, he gave me one hard nudge to the back of my head with his foot. Basically telling me, I did the crime, now I do the time. I came out from under the blanket and I could see the anger, hurt and disappointment in his face through my tears. When he asked where I got the joke from, I did what all teenage kids do when they're in trouble, I lied.

I told him a friend from school emailed me the joke. He left the room with the piece of paper and I figured he would calm down and forget about it. So later that night, I found the paper and tore it into pieces and threw it away. I tried throwing it away under other trash, but that did no good. My dad was furious when the paper was no longer where he left it, but rather in the garbage in pieces. He yelled at me again and I cried, again. And yet another nudge to the back of the head, since my reflex to conflict is to cry and hide. My dad took all the pieces out of the trash and taped it back together.

The next day at school, I get called to the principal's office. My dad had filed a complaint at school against my friend, who did absolutely nothing! It was just the first name that had popped into my head. I was gut-wrenched. As my friend and I sat across from the principal, I was being asked all these questions. I had to keep up with the lie or who knows what was going to happen at the house with my dad.

Once we were dismissed from the principal's office, I never heard of the incident again. My dad never brought it back up, and my friend...all I know is I never saw them again and never got the chance to apologize. I don't know if they ever got into trouble and if they did, what their punishment was for MY lie. It's been over 10 years since the incident, but I still can't even bring myself to "friend" them on Facebook. They seem to be doing well though, so I'm very happy about that. They're living in Missouri and have an adorable little girl.

I talk a lot to my close friends about trying not to live a life of regrets, but this small, maybe insignificant incident would be one.