“I will do whatever it takes to get my way.” That was the moral of my seven year old self’s beliefs. Seven year old me, would not take no for an answer, ever. One summer day my brother and I were playing with dinosaurs outside. We were trying to pass time until our mom took us to our favorite neighborhood pool. My brother and I idolized this pool. It was our favorite place to go when it was hot out. As per usual our “playing” somehow quickly escalated into a fight about who would get to play with what dinosaur. After my brother went inside, wailing to my mom about how selfish I was that I had called “dibs” on the T-rex, I went inside to list off all of the extraordinarily evil motives of him wanting to play with the Tyrannosaurus Rex instead of letting me play with it. Our mom got so sick of our yelling and fighting she banished us to our room and said, “No one will be going to the pool today.”

That couldn’t possibly be happening- I had been waiting for this day all week. I quickly realized the price I had to pay for not simply letting my brother play with the plastic dinosaur. Seven year old me though, could not and would not possibly accept that I was in the wrong. I could feel the anger boiling up inside of me because of the injustice that had been done to me. “Mommy, please! This is all His fault! He was the one being stubborn. You should still take me to the pool.” I wailed to my mom.

“Amalie, you should have thought about the consequences before making your actions.” She said coolly, “Now, go to your room and calm down before you come back upstairs. I have had enough of your behavior, if this continues there will be no pool for the rest of the summer.” “

NO! THAT IS UNFAIR! MOM PLEASEEE! I HATE YOU. YOU DON'T LOVE ME AND YOU NEVER WILL! I WISH I WAS NEVER BORN!” I cried and screamed. That was it as soon as the words left my mouth I had crossed the line, and I knew it. I looked up to my mom, growing angrier, and angrier every second. I turned and ran to my room, I didn’t want to know what she had to say to me. All I could hear was the phone ringing, every ring taunting me about what I had done, she had called Dad. I was doomed and I knew it. When he came home after work I was in big trouble, and even worse I had already lost the pool for the whole summer. “I can fix this, just go upstairs and tell mommy you're sorry and she will take you to the pool,” I thought to myself, “No that won't work, I need my brother to help me. She will feel sorry for him.” She didn’t. That was it. I slid dramatically down the corner of my room to sit down and cry. How could she deprive me of such wonderful things? There had to be something I could do to get to that pool. In utter disgust feeling absolutely horrible for my neglected self, I sat in a pool of sorrow for the next two minutes. That’s when my great idea sprouted in my head, growing more and more realistic. I laid out my scheme, there was no stopping me. I was getting to the pool and that was that. I knew if I told my mom I was leaving, she wouldn’t believe me, and she didn’t. She told me to set the table for dinner and then go back to my room for time-out until dinner. This only fueled my determination. Since I was confined to my bedroom I found my bath towel, some almost broken goggles, and a smashed chewy granola bar. I stuffed it all into a backpack I found deserted in my closet. I then remembered that I would need money to get into the pool. I ran to my dad's wooden dresser. In the top drawer of his dresser, he had a small Hallmark holiday card box, full to the brim of quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies. This is where he deposited any left over change. I grabbed a handful of quarters, naively thinking that would be enough to pay for a pool entrance ticket. I then, quietly, walked right out the backdoor of our house so that my mom wouldn’t know I left. I walked down our long driveway watching the bricks that were arranged in a quilted pattern twist forward and sideways until my feet came to black pavement. I was on the street, the busiest one in our neighborhood. My plan was to walk to the bus stop and then walk through the village to the pool. My stomach suddenly seemed to be chewing at itself. I knew I shouldn’t be doing this and I knew I definitely shouldn’t have done this without telling my mom. “She won’t even know you're gone. You'll just go to the pool, have fun and come home.” I continued to walk up the street trying to convince myself this was the truth. I passed my neighbor’s 

house and looked across the street to see people who had been talking on their patio staring at me. “Oh no, they are going to think I'm missing and call the police.” 

“No they won’t they won’t.” I countered. I could imagine my mom’s reaction when I came home - she would be so mad at me. I couldn’t go home. I continued past my next neighbor’s house. I was so scared, my stomach seemed to keep falling, someone was going to think something was wrong or I was going to get kidnapped. I was too nervous to go home because I knew I had been disrespectful to my mom and the guilt was getting to me. I felt bad for yelling at my mom and saying the things I did. I turned around and saw the people still oddly looking at me. I kept walking, becoming more nervous everytime my aqua sneakers came down on the pavement. I had almost made it up the street and a stranger turned around the corner. It scared me so badly, I jumped. That was it, I couldn’t take it anymore my nerves and guilt seemed to explode inside of my stomach. I turned in my tracks looking down the big hill I had just walked up and saw my driveway at the very bottom right before the street dipped up to another hill. I bolted down the hill as fast as I could, my feet barely being able to catch up with my body. Bursting into the front door, I had shivers down my body and I was shaking. I saw my panicked mom running forward to embrace me with her phone in hand, looking like she just saw a ghost. My brother was almost on the verge of tears. “WHERE WERE YOU?! Amalie, I was so scared! You can not leave this house like that again!” Her tone had gone from extremely relieved to harsh.  I started crying and explained everything to her, what I was doing and how sorry I was for saying what I had. I was shocked that she didn’t seem furious with me. We ate dinner in peace. Then my dad walked in the door. He didn’t look very happy. 

That night I had a stern talking to from my parents and I vaguely remember some spankings. I don’t remember if I did lose the pool for the whole summer but I had learned my lesson. That I shouldn’t talk disrespectfully to my parents or run away especially without telling anyone. Most of all, but not more importantly, I learned when it was and wasn’t necessary to try and get my way, and trying to go against my parents' consequence for my actions by using my hurtful words and sneaking away, definitely was not. If I had just let my brother play with the dinosaur we wouldn’t have ended up in a fight. If we were never in a fight, I wouldn’t have lost the pool. If I would have accepted the reasonable consequence from my mom, I wouldn’t have been disrespectful, scared myself, or felt extremely guilty trying to get to the pool. In conclusion, It is okay to take no as an answer.