What's the most rebellious thing you've ever done?
Oh, people.
I was not what you'd call a rebellious child. We've had this conversation before, and Mother has confirmed that whatever word describes the polar opposite of mischievous is the word that would best describe me. Catholic guilt was my most consistent emotion.
But as I was on Facebook tonight chatting back and forth with Goi, one of my dearest friends from high school, I remembered a time when we tried really hard to be rebellious.
Tried being the operative word here.
We were sophomores in high school and the guys in our class were rebellious enough for all of us. If they could find a way to get into trouble, they jumped in with both feet.
One day, a bunch of us were sitting in the cafeteria during study hall when the boys started bragging about stealing some random road sign. And some of us girls [Goi and I included] were trying to tell them it wasn't that big of a deal. That it wasn't the amazing feat they were claiming it to be.
And then we decided to put our money where our mouth was.
[Dear Mother: you may want to stop reading now...]
Of course, we were girls and that meant that we were more logical than our male counterparts. So we decided we would only steal a stop sign from a country road where there was little traffic and less chance anyone would get hurt from our actions. [Thoughtful, weren't we?] We also decided to focus our efforts out by the acreage where I lived because it was fairly secluded so there was less chance of getting caught – and if anyone happened upon us out there we could get in the car quick and say we were just headed to my house.
We were totally thinking ahead.
We were so prepared with tools and cover stories and oodles of logic.
What we weren't prepared for were the bolts on the sign being so dang tight.
Seriously, people. I have a hard time believing the wimpy 15 year old boys in the sophomore class had enough muscle on their own to get those bolts loosened. I'm convinced to this day that they took some sort of power tool out there with them.
Although, showing my age here, I'm not entirely sure battery powered tools were as readily available 20 years ago.
Regardless, it was insane. At one point, Goi and I were both holding onto the wrench [totally not even sure it was a wrench... I'm not tool savvy] and pulling on that sucker with all of our might when the wrench flew out of our hands and into the overgrown ditch. Goi jumped in to retrieve it, only to start yelling about getting bit and her face burning and swearing she jumped right into a mad swarm of something.
Turns out she did.
We gave up on the sign entirely [and probably lost the wrench-like tool in the process] and when I showed up in study hall the next day, Goi was there with one eye almost swollen shut and red bites on her face.
Seriously. Poor girl. I don't remember how she explained that one to her parents, but I'm sure it was a doozy.
All this to say... I have succeeded at a great many things in my life.
Being rebellious was not one of them.