Write about a time when you wanted or decided to act in a way that went against the moral principles that you were taught or that society imposes to follow what felt right for you personally or what was true to your own principles.
Also, review the characterization terms. Then reread Lee Maracle’s story “Who’s Political Here?” and take notes on the characterization in the story. This is in preparation for the second analytical paragraph, which we will be writing in class on Monday. Make sure you bring the story to class.
Dawson Journeys English 
There was a time last year when I decided to act in a way that went against what I was taught growing up. I was with one of my old friends named Ally, at her and her roommate Jay’s place. Jay was a real piece of shit. If you looked up “piece of shit” on urban dictionary, you’d find days worth of reads about him. Ally would always vent to me on how much of an ass he was to her. But she felt that she needed to stay with him because he was “going through stuff”. But the truth is, he always was and always will be that person that no one likes because he made it that way. Anyways, back to that night, Jay had invited a couple of people over for poker night and he wasn’t home yet because he was still at work, so we decided to have a couple of warm up games while waiting for him. Jay is a lazy ass when it comes to work. For his job, I barely consider it work because from what Ally and I knew, he just sat at a desk while playing on the internet or his phone the entire time. Even back at their home place, Ally did all the cleaning, cooking, laundry, paid for all the food, electricity, internet and everything, whereas Jay’s paycheck went towards all his desires. Anything Jay wanted done, Ally had to do pretty much. So back to poker night, it was about 45 minutes into the warm up games when we heard the slam of a door. We turned to see Jay standing in the doorway with a pissed look on his face- staring right at Ally. He told her to go outside with her for a minute to show her something. She automatically got up and followed him outside, as did I because I seen from her body language and facial expression that she was a little scared. I stood just on the other side of the door peering out the glass window making sure that nothing bad was happening. It started off as yelling because Jay’s new motorized scooter was laying on the ground all messed up on the right side. Ally had no idea what happened to it but of course it was her fault because Jay can’t take the blame for anything, especially when it’s over something that’s his. He was so pissed because it was brand new that he didn’t want to put out money to get it fixed so he started yelling at Ally saying that her next paycheck is gone now because she “fucked up” and so it’s going to cost her. She then said “But what about the food and internet bills?”. Then he replied “figure it the fuck out. It’s not my fucking problem”. At this point I was super pissed because there was no reason for her to be treated like that at all. I kept watching and listening though to make sure it was okay. At this point the other 2 of Jay’s friends came beside me too, to look out to see what was going on. One of them asked me “what’s going on out there?”, and as I was in the middle of explaining what was happening I heard a sharp but small cry. I turned to see Ally on the asphalt holding the side of her jaw. I didn’t see what had happened but I knew right away, so I opened the door and yelled “What the fuck you dumbass piece of shit?!!!”. He told me to “Stay the fuck out of it”, and I said “No! Ally’s my best friend and I’m obviously not staying out of something that you made my business by doing it around me!”. Then out of such inexplicably uncontrollable rage, I just charged him and started swinging. I got 1 good uppercut and a few hooks in on his already messed up head, but he gave me a few good ones in the side of the head and in the stomach. After a couple solid minutes, Jay’s 2 friends came out to break it up. In response to that, Jay went inside and took my bag and brought it outside and threw all my stuff on the ground and poured beer on it. I had my Ipod, old phone, headphones, 2 cheeseburgers I was saving, my notebook I’d write my poems in. Then he started smashing everything with his foot. I was soooooooooooooo pissed at this point that I went over to his scooter when he went back inside that I took one of the sidewalk bricks that were loose and i went over to his scooter and with all my power I threw it down at it and broke a piece off the front. After that I grabbed my beer drenched, smashed stuff and put it back in my bag. Jay came out quick looking at his scooter and was even more pissed. I couldn’t help but laugh because all I thought was “payback bitch”. He looked at me soooooo very angry, that as I was picking up my things he came running and kicked me in the face as I was knelt down. It happened so fast and unexpected and my nose was bleeding like crazy, so I got my stuff together and left because there was really no point anymore. The point is that I was taught to mind my own business and wasn’t allowed to fight unless it was for self defense. I broke those moral principles to protect my best friend. She was more than that at the time. She was more like a sister. But that was my reason for breaking those morals. Because I always protect family.
*I changed the names of the people*
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While violence is rarely the best solution to a problem, I think it’s great that you made it clear to this guy that his abuse was not acceptable. And I’m sorry that you got hurt too.
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One of the times I went against my own moral principals was throwing a party at my old house with alcohol involved with under aged kids drinking (15-17). At the time I believed it was right of my own principals but it wasn’t, I was under the impression that it would give me a “cooler” reputation even though it did it also came with the reputation of a delinquent. Now that I’ve been punished for a while I realized I have to also look into the principals of what society imposes, even though I thought my true principals were right you have to try and look at both points before ever doing an action.
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Other than the reputation for delinquency, do you think there is anything else wrong with under-aged drinking?
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I guess in a way I’m constantly going against what I’ve been taught as a kid. I was told I sold respect authority and be kind and polite. While I don’t try to be rude (most of the time) I end up just being inappropriate in a way. I also have this thing for questioning the authority and power of other people. I have this thing for vulgarity also, there is just something about it that I enjoy; which is hilarious because my mom still gets super upset whenever I swear in front of her. I can’t think of much else that goes against what I was taught as a kid.
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Many people think of questioning authority as critical thinking — which is a good practice. That is not, of course, the same thing as being rude or disrespectful.
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It was approximately three years ago, when I acted on an immoral principle. Best friend morals are; being able to tell each-other everything, and keep everything in secret. This is the moral I broke of our friendship My friend had undergone very difficult situations when growing up, having an drug addict mother, and an autistic sister then being given up for adoption while having her adopted parents get a divorce. With this amount of stress on her shoulders, you could imagine she become fairly depressed. In association with that she became more and more distant and began to cut her self. She had only told me, and said it was a one time thing. Turns out it wasn’t. She hadn’t stopped, and she told me to never tell anyone, but this was my best friend, how could I not tell anyone? So I told her adopted mother, where she brought her to the children’s hospital. She brought her to the 9th floor but also known as the psych ward. The ward had not helped at all, all I did was place her problems in a different physical place.
There is never a day I wish I could have taken back what I had said to her mother. So that she wouldn’t have to go to the 9th floor.
I believe this event had really taken a toll on me because I was thinking selfishly. I was only thinking on my personal principle. Justifying it which how much I would miss my best friend if she was gone.
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I think you were right to try to get help for your friend; it is just terribly unfortunate that the hospital couldn’t offer the help she needed. Our society is tragically lacking in effective treatments for mental and emotional illness in young people.
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I’ve had my moments with going against my morals but the biggest one had to be when I was dating my ex boyfriend. We were together for a few months and I thought things were okay even though they weren’t. He was my first real boyfriend so I didn’t know how a relationship should’ve been like. Turns out it wasn’t so great. He was an abuser, he messed with my mind more than anything else. He grew up in a messed up life, his mother parents were drug addicts so he was raised by his grand-parents. However growing up he felt anger for being neglected, feeling like his mother never loved him so he began his destructive path he is on today, he created numerous lies about his life, he stole, he lied and did all sorts of twisted things to get himself into group homes. When we met he perceived himself as a sad boy. I fell for him thinking he understood me, little did I know. After the first month something felt off, I felt I couldn’t be with him because instead of recovering I seemed to be falling down a dark path again. I felt more sad than happy. He would constantly tell me he had a split personality and that’s why he would say certain things to me, he’d say that’s the reason he cut himself and that’s the side that would start arguements. After the first month I attempted to end it with him because I was tired of feeling depressed. He caused a huge argument and turned it on me, he then carved my name into his wrist so out of terror I ran and he followed. After that we made up and he promised he would never do those things again. When things got worse for him and he was kicked out of his home my family decided to foster him. We were together for 4 months before I was finally brave enough to end it. While we were broken up he still lived with me. He would still continue his abusive motives but no one would believe me when I attempted to stand up for myself. I was tired of the lying and having him steal from me.He would be playing constant mind games. He would sneak into my room all the time. I was so terrified I cried to my mom to buy me a lock for my door so he wouldn’t be able to come in. Everyday seeing him made me feel horrible. It was a constant reminder that I was worthless because my family seemed to like him more over me. When I had enough and couldn’t stand the pain anymore I begged my mom to make him leave, instead she called me selfish for wanting to throw out a boy with no home (he used this a lot). I dreaded being home because I knew I would have to face him. I used to stay out really late and sleepover a lot on the weekends. Being home was a reminder of how worthless I felt I was. I remember threatening to call my social worker and going to a group home myself. It took my mother months before she realized what a sociopath he was. She had caught him in all his lies and broke down and had no choice but to kick him out. He felt no remorse what soever for what he did. To this day he still blames me for everything. I didn’t feel bad about kicking him out because I knew my self worth and knew I didn’t deserve to be treated the way I was.
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I always went against what I was taught as a daughter, at the time I think it’s a good idea but in the end it’s not. For example; I wait till last minute to do my schoolwork and it’s not good at all. My mother always taught me to do my work right away, but I don’t listen because all I want is fun….I totally wish life worked that way, and right when I finally feel like I could get in track and actually succeed in education, I fall right back to what got me in trouble in the first place. I don’t wanna fail at my schooling, and Mayans I should care more about whether I succeed or not. It’s not right for the people who actually try their hardest to pass and here I am making teachers give me longer extensions when I should’ve just did my work in the start.
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