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2. Courage – Write about a time that you needed courage.

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Courage means something different to different people. But for me, it means having the strength to stand up for myself, speak my mind, and to truly know what I want to accomplish by doing so. There were definitely a few times I needed courage, but couldn't find it. Just as there were times I couldn't find it, there were times I could.

I found courage when everyone around me was saying yes, and I said no. There's a story that goes with that: classic peer pressure from people I was supposed to look up to.

I was spending the day with my older cousins, I think I was either already 12, or just about to turn 12, I don't really know the exact date. We had gone to an arcade, and then afterwards, since we were in the area, we had decided to stop by another one of my cousins houses. All was well, the adults went out for an hour or two while I stayed with my cousins, which looking back on that wasn't exactly the best choice in that moment, I should've just gone home.

After a few minutes they had an absolutely terrible idea in my opinion, to roll their own cigarettes, and smoke. They had offered one to me, which I denied. They said it would be alright since nobody was around, I still denied. I vividly remember storming out of the room, calling them crazy as I did so, which they had laughed off as just me being childish.

Now here's the fun part; the parents came back to find me just sitting in the kitchen, playing a game on the phone my mom had lent me. "Why aren't you with your cousins?" they asked then 12 year old me, to which I replied, "Didn't you pass them on the way in?"

They hadn't, but they went out to check. My cousins were all caught smoking, which they were promptly disciplined for, and I, who avoided the entire situation was praised. At 12 I already had high morals, I knew what was wrong and what was right, and I knew that in order to avoid problems later on in life, that I'd have to stick to that way of thinking. I was congratulated on standing my ground.

A little while later, It was rumoured that one of my cousins, she was 13 at the time, called me annoying behind my back. She didn't like that she got caught, nor did she like that I was the only one that would have told anyone that she was out there. She was not only mad that she got caught, but the parents had also found out that it was also her idea in the first place. I wonder who had told them that.

I haven't spoken a single word to any of them in 5 years.

I stood my ground, cut the bad people out of my life, and overall strengthened my morals. I had won that battle of judgement, and to this day, that story empowers me.

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