“Hello boys and girls, my name is Mr. Jones, and today I’ll be talking about something I experienced when I was a young boy,” he told the third grade classroom as the students sat crisscross applesauce in a large circle. He was a phenomenal public speaker and made a living speaking at elementary schools around the country. Sometimes he would simply entertain, but other times he had valuable lessons to teach. Mr. Jones’s past is a collection of incredibly interesting experiences- both positive and negative. Just like everyone else, his past has shaped him into the person he is today and taught him many critical lessons. Today, he is visiting several classrooms at Lake Oqua elementary school talking about a very important rule he had learned the hard way years ago… always obey your parents.

It all started when I began fourth grade. I was finally switching classrooms for math, and I even got to help out a first grade teacher in her classroom; I truly felt grown up. I was certain that one of the pivotal moments of being a fourth grader would be the moment my parents told me I would no longer have a bedtime.

“Mom, isn’t it time for me to choose when I go to bed now? I’m not a baby anymore!” I accidentally blurted out at the dinner table one night. I was planning on asking her later that day, but by no means was it supposed to come out like that.

“Johnny, unfortunately you can’t do that quite yet, but you can stay up a little bit later. How about we change your bedtime from 9:00 to 9:30?” She offered. Just like that, my hopes were crushed. This isn’t the answer I wanted, and I ultimately decided it was unfair.

“Fine mom…” I sort of agreed. In the back of my mind though, I had an entirely different plan. I was going to rebel. In fact, I decided to stay up as long as my body would let me keep my eyes open. At the moment, I didn’t care about the possible consequences or the fact that I would need to wake up for school the next morning. That very night, once 9:30 rolled around I went into my bedroom and turned off the lights. My mother did her typical check-in with me and assumed I would be going to bed. By no means was she expecting anything unusual.

About twenty minutes later, when I heard the TV in my parents’ bedroom get switched off, I decided it was safe to get up. I walked over to my desk, turned on my mini lamp, and sat down in front of my computer screen. For a few minutes, I daydreamed and wondered what life would be like if I could choose my own bedtime. Would I still be staying up all night? Shortly after, I decided to stop wasting my time wondering and moved on to my video games. Once the Sims got boring, I proceeded to watch at least twenty different Fred videos on YouTube. Two o’clock in the morning came around and I continued to watch, proud to be up later than I’d ever been before. It wasn’t until about four that I truly couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer and was forced to go to bed. I vividly remember how incredible it felt to snuggle up with my panda plush toy and sink into my fluffy mattress that night.

Before I even had the chance to fall into a deep sleep, I heard the sound of the obnoxious alarm my father placed right beside my ear every morning. Immediately after I opened my eyes, I smelled bacon and french toast cooking in the kitchen. Normally I would get up and race downstairs, but for some reason I wasn’t even hungry. Surprisingly, it took me nearly twenty minutes to drag myself out of bed to get ready for the day.

Once I finally made it to the kitchen, I looked at the clock and realized school had already started. I looked at my mom and immediately felt guilty for what I did. She had a displeased look on her face as she looked at me and slowly shook her head from side to side. She knew.

“Why didn’t you sleep last night Johnny? I heard you get out of bed and unfortunately you forgot to turn the volume down on your computer. You weren’t as sneaky as you thought.” My mom explained this to me as if it were no big deal. I was mortified. Worst of all, I had to go to school forty minutes late and explain my story to everyone- literally. With tears in my eyes, I told my classroom, teachers, and even the principal about my wrongdoing and why I was late for school. On top of all this, I struggled to stay awake all day and felt foolish for not being able to focus or follow even the simplest instructions.

“You see ladies and gentleman, the main thing I’m trying to tell you here is listen to your parents. Unfortunately, they’re always right. I chose not to do this one night, and you all see how that turned out. I was forced to endure an uneventful day of embarrassment and misfortune,” Mr. Jones says as he closes off his classroom discussion. A few of the children giggle and smirk, several even clap at the end. From the looks in their eyes though, Mr. Jones is sure that these third graders won’t be disobeying their parents anytime soon.