Days Of Our 12th Grade Lives

I used to have this little creed or motto or  mantra  or what have you that I would remind myself of whenever I made a big mistake. "A lesson learned isn't always a lesson applied". It's relatively original, as far as my half-assed in-depth Google query was able to confirm. Well, as things would have it I once again decided to go swimming in the deep end of the pool, and it made me think: is a lesson ever really learned when it costs you nothing? I guess its sort of like free stuff versus stuff you bust your ass to have, and the difference in how you might value one over the other. I like to think I work hard for my screw-ups, especially the really ugly, "oh-man-Chris-is-really-effed-now" ones.

Things are getting crazy, as of late. It seems with every new year the bad choices I make compound themselves, growing larger and dumber as time progresses, a lot like my older sister or the population of the United States. I'm turning eighteen in a week and change, and I feel the weight of responsibility compounding in a similar way as each day is ticked off the calendar. My choices are beginning to cost me quite a bit. It was a sobering wake up call to hear the news today that two of my friends, amici, partners in crime, etc etc, are being charged with class 5 felonies for an undisclosed offense. That's big-kid jail, folks. They're both barely any older than me, and they're looking at a two year bid in a state prison, at the very least.

I suppose I knew this would happen eventually, but never this close to home. It guess its sort of like car accidents, or alien abductions, or cancer. You always hear about it and think "That's never going to happen to a guy like me". Then BAM! Life kicks you right in the proverbial cajones. I'm realizing its time to really start living by that motto, that this lesson learned needs to be applied.