Writing Prompt: Tell Us About a Time You Broke the Rules
This week, we’re keeping it short and simple: Tell us about a time when you broke the rules. Maybe you snuck out of the house in the middle of the night to sing karaoke, used your college ID to get a discount when you were well into your 30s, ducked into a second movie at the multiplex…you get the idea. It can be a minor offense that earned you an afternoon of detention or a misunderstanding that got you suspended for a week. Length is up to you, but we’d say the sweet spot is somewhere between two lines and two paragraphs. (And if you’re inclined to keep going on your own, we strongly encourage it!)
We’ve been doing giveaways for the past few weeks to folks with the most popular comments. Last week, Adam posted a hilarious story about getting into trouble with friends at a new job, winning him a free year-long subscription to Narratively Academy. This week, we’re offering one more. So, post away — we can’t wait to read your stories.
P.S. We’re trying out Sundays again based on feedback we’ve received from some of you. Please, tell us what works best for you: Saturdays, Sundays, a day during the week? Let us know in the comments!
I was going to write something about climbing the fire escape at my old place to break into an empty apartment above to have sex with the person I was dating (in the dark, on weed gummies and we accidentally broke a chair in the process), or the time a graduate school maintenance employee was going through a hard emotional time and gave me the keys to his golf cart so I could run an errand for him (it was the best and only drive of my uninsured life across the University of California at San Diego campus), or the time I let a houseguest have a one night stand against my live-in boyfriend's wishes (we snuck him in and out and washed the sheets, but my partner still found out), or the time I looked through someone I was dating's phone (why was his password 6666?), or even the time I stole a pumpkin from a grocery store in my early 20s (I'm sorry Olympia, WA Safeway!) but according to a trusted friend, I break the most rules by speaking openly about having had cancer. I never even would have considered that rule-breaking, but I guess speaking about illness, body scars, and death is something that a lot of people still feel uncomfortable about. Not me apparently. It's true. It probably comes up when you Google me.
As a high school senior and editor of the school newspaper, I got to read the administration's morning announcements over the school-wide intercom every Friday. The announcements frequently included directions to members of various clubs or teams to report to the gymnasium, the library, music room, or a particular classroom at the end of the school day or -- occasionally -- just after the announcements.
For the last Friday of the year, I made a list of a dozen or so fellow seniors and ordered them to "report to Room 329 immediately." There was no such room.
A couple of my victims, caught on to the ruse when they couldn't find the room. They tracked me down between classes and made a ruckus that attracted the attention of an assistant principal. I was promptly sentenced to an hour's after school detention.
Word of my crime and sentence spread rapidly. By the middle of the day, when I got to Algebra class, Mr. Boyer, our much-beloved teacher and a rebel-at-heart, began class by demanding that I stand and be recognized. He then led a round of applause.
I'm 74 now, and I don't know that I've ever been more proud,.
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