Gabriel Tackitt, one of my best friends, was moving away at the end of my sophomore year, so my friends and I decided to have one last hang out before he left. Filling up water balloons, we watched cars drive by on the road. Then, we got the brightest idea ever. We were going to throw the balloons at the cars. I mean, who has ever gotten into trouble for throwing water balloons?
We soon found out people don't like their windshields being splattered with water while driving. One of the vehicles we hit, an enormous black truck, u-turned at the end of the road and came racing back towards the house. We stood still, watching it come back, before we realized what was happening. Panic hit the group and we picked up our bucket and took off. Running back the house we realized we'd locked ourselves out and panic turned to hysteria. We couldn't stop yelling and laughing as we hauled around the house and ran towards the dry river. I looked back and could see the truck pull up to the house, but luckily he didn't follow us on the dirt road.
Thinking we were in the clear, we went back and kept having fun outside. The next day, we receive a message from Gabe's parents. The man who's truck we'd hit had come back and told the adults what had happened. Luckily, Gabe's parents weren't mad at us, but they made sure we knew we were being irresponsible. They gave us a ride to the man's house and we all apologized in person. It was hard at first, but he responded positively explaining he'd only come back to warn us that cars on that road traveled fast. Obscuring their vision with water on their windshield could cause a serious accident and that we didn't want to be responsible for wrecking somebody's car. Since then, I've learned to think of other's safety as well as my own and that a simple apology could go a long way.
When I was younger, I often thought I knew best. I didn't take adults seriously when they'd tell me not to do something. As a middle schooler, I often felt I needed to do something wrong myself to know whether it was a bad idea or not. As a high schooler I wasn't much better. Now, as a college student, I have learned it's more efficient to learn from other's mistakes.