Ignorance is not an excuse: The Inkwell prompt

I have always had the best life since I entered junior high school. Everything seems to be going my way, like I was sleeping on a bed of roses, but it all crashed after I got into senior high school after my dad lost his job.

I had this feeling like I was sailing on a sinking boat; everything I had began to disappear one after the other, after i graduated from junior high school, I had to move to a new school. The people I met in my new school weren’t friendly at all. I started attending senior high school without paying any fee due to the previous record of my family payments in junior high school. Four months into high school, I became a victim of bullying. Same class, but they seem bigger and stronger than me. Even though we have the same body size, I couldn’t stop them from saying bad things to me or stop them from hitting me. It was sports activities day one Thursday, and I was out with the team to play football. After selecting 11 players for the first team, the other team was lagging by one more player, I was there standing, but they refused to pick me. I went closer and asked to be on the team, but the team captain said, "I would rather play with 10 boys than let you be on my team." I felt so bad, and all I could do was watch them from the sidelines.

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It went on for a while, until one day, I told my dad I couldn’t manage going to that school and I would like to change schools. I was lucky enough because my dad got a new job that pays well. There was a school very far from home that was taking in transfer students and that was the first choice. I had a change of school, but I couldn’t change my self-esteem. The new school had a rule of "everyone for themselves"; there was a little lawlessness, and students had their own gang, more like a pack of teen wolves.

I felt intimidated. It was like I would be swallowed in this new school, but I was surprised that everyone wanted to talk to me probably because I was brilliant and I had good body stature. At first, anytime it was closing hour, I would follow the school bus, and that was it for the day, but later on, I found myself walking with other guys in my class home.

After school hours every Friday, there is always a football match with another school at a faraway football field. I have never gone there before, but a friend told me, "With your height, you would be a good goalkeeper." and just like that, I started following them there, It was like I was given everything I was missing from my previous school on a platter of gold.

Little by little, without realizing it, I was being influenced by my peers. Things I didn't do before, I began to do. I started going home late and using curse words. I became more aggressive and wouldn’t listen to my mom anymore. My characters were able to be influenced because it was something I had been yearning for. I would pay my school fee, but anytime my friends were chased home for not paying their fee, I would go home with them and play video games at their house. Little by little, I was becoming a delinquent without knowing it.

The day I realized that I had been influenced wrongly was the day my mom seized my phone, and there was nothing I could do but hope she returned it. I told a friend of mine in school, and he said

"When you get home, tell her that. Mommy, give me my phone now, unless I fight with you. Are you the one who bought the phone for me? Why will you take my phone like it's your property?"

After listening to him, I looked at him again and thought of what he said. "You mean I should say those words to my mother?" when I am not gotten from the roadside or I fell from heaven. It was then that I knew I had been walking with bad friends and had been influenced by their bad character without knowing it. I started cutting ties with them little by little and watching the words that comes out of my mouth. Although I still followed them for the usual outing, I became more aware of the way I acted.

In my land, there is a popular saying that goes like this:

If a lamp always walks with a park of dogs, one day the lamp will eat feces.

I was influenced into doing things I don't do and if i was to be persecuted by the law, Ignorance to the law wont save me.