My Memoir: The Story Of My Life

First Time Stealing

Okay, so this isn't my first time stealing, but this is a story about the first time I actually stole something, that got me into a lot of trouble.

My freshman year of high school, my class sponsors were hosting a trip to Rome.

Anyone with a 3.5 GPA or higher could go on this trip, so naturally, I wanted to go.

All of my friends were planning on going, and I figured that it would be a really cool thing to do during spring break, so I begged my parents to let me go, and they said no, which angered me!

I was livid. I just didn't think that it was fair, because Ashton got to go his freshman year, and so did Lucas, so why couldn't I go?

Well, their reasoning was that they were spending a lot of money paying for my brothers college and Ashton had just gotten a car which cost them a lot of money, but it was totally their fault for having 5 kids, at least that's what I thought.

The trip was $2500 and I know that it's expensive, but the school gave us six months to pay for it, which would've worked, if they actually tried to save money for once. I even offered to get a job to help pay for the trip, and they told me that I wasn't allowed to get a job because school comes first. Bullshit!

I spent weeks trying to convince them, but the answer was always no, every single fucking time.

So I resorted to the unthinkable.

My mom always took off her wedding ring before she showered, so one night, while she was showering, I stole her ring.

She spent days frantically looking for it, and the thought of it gone was honestly stressing her out. I felt bad, but I needed the money.

So, I took it to a pawn shop, and I got $2,700 for it. I was guilty, but happy, and my mother would never know.

In the meantime though, my friends and I decided to start a fundraiser to get my parents to believe that we were selling baked goods to earn money for the trip.

My mom baked brownies and cookies, and we sold them at school and told people that there was marijuana in them, just so they'd pay extra.

The money was starting to build, but it would've never reached $2,500 in time for the trip. However, it was a good way to make my parents think that I earned the money by myself.

I let a few months go by before I officially paid for the trip, so that my parents wouldn't suspect anything, and it totally worked.

The money from the fundraiser was divided amongst my friends and I for spending money in Italy. We each got $300 from the fundraiser, and we couldn't have been happier!

But as time went on, I was starting to feel guilty, and I just didn't feel happy about the trip anymore.

My mom got a new ring, but I knew that it would never be like the original one.

So out of guilt, I decided to tell Ashton what I had done, because he's done some pretty bad things too, so I trusted that he wouldn't tell anyone what I did.

He was pretty upset that I stole our mom's ring and pawned it, but he agreed not to tell anyone what happened, until we got into this huge fight a few weeks later. But that's another story.

Bottom line is that my mom found out, made me cancel the trip, grounded me for a month and a half, and lost all trust in me.

She also pocketed the $2,700 and kept the $300 from the fundraiser as well.

Oh, and luckily for her, she went back to the pawn shop, and the ring was still there, so she explained the situation to the owner, and he gave the ring back to her, but demanded the $2,700 back which she happily returned.

To this day, I have never been to Rome, and every time there's a trip at school, I always remember the extreme measures I went through, during freshman year.