3 Anecdotes

A long, long, time ago when I was just a mere child, my parents had forced me to eat carrots. This despicable, orange vegetable was one that I despised the most. Although it was only five baby carrots, it seemed like torture for me to devour them. Each pain staking bite would cause my gag reflex to activate, making it nearly impossible to finish five whole baby carrots. Every time I would throw up the carrot from its rancid taste, I would have to replace it with a new one. An hour had passed and my dad got sick of me going through nearly half the bag of carrots, when I only ended up eating two because the rest were floating in the toilet. Instead of having to finish off three more miserable carrots, I got to eat peas instead. That, too, proved to be a hard feat to stomach down. The peas inside the pod weren't so bad to eat, but the outside pod was difficult to eat. After seeing me struggling just to eat peas, my dad said I didn't have to eat the menacing outer exterior. Instead, I was allowed to eat just the peas. Finally, after over an hour, I had managed to finish all my vegetables from dinner.

One day as I was coming home from school, I showed my mom a progress report on the second week of sixth grade for concert band. Being forgetful as I am, I didn't turn in my homework for one week. Upon seeing that F branded upon my progress report, my mom was literally outraged. She had turned from this easy going person to a raging beast in less than two seconds. A sudden progress report signing had soon turned into a flurry of words all spelling out one thing for me: grounded. That one measly homework assignment that I forgot to turn in resulted in me getting grounded for a month with no internet or television. I, myself, was outraged at that moment too. No television or internet for a month all because of that one homework assignment. The rest of the day was spent sulking around the house trying to figure out how to occupy myself. When my dad came home, he asked me why I was being such a grouch at home. I answered to him that mom had grounded me for a month with no television or internet because of my progress report. Seeing as that was harsh punishment, my dad lessened the severity of the punishment by allowing me to watch television during dinner time.
Another instance was when I was nine, and my mom had grounded me for bringing home a progress report that had a zero on it. Again, my mom went into a flurry of panic all because of that zero imprinted upon my paper. Back then, I was less responsible about my homework, so that one certain week fate had decided to make me forget to do my homework. A sticker less, non perfect progress report had caused my mom to get enraged. My punishment was no internet or television for two weeks. Long ago, my punishment was less severe in the amount of time I got grounded for. Now as I get older, my parents just tack on the groundings. I no longer get short, two week groundings. As I got home from school the next day, I was bored out of my mind. I just slumped down into my bed, trying to fall asleep. Noticing my utter boredom, my dad offered to give me a lesson in how to shoot a BB gun. My mom's plan to make me bored out of my mind had failed, for my dad had me do one fun thing while i was waiting out my excruciatingly long sentence of grounding, My dad that day had saved me from boredom while I was being grounded.