So when I was around 14 years old I was trying really hard to fit in and be cool.
I remember I had a group of friends that I'd always get into trouble with. We were
always up to no good. Back in London where I was born and
raised, you can get your driving license by 17. But me and these two other guys
decided to steal his mum's car for a joyride. Our parents were all at a
wedding together so we had the perfect window.
One of my friends stole the spare set of keys from his mum's purse and all three
of us got into the car and he started driving. I was so anxious and nervous but
I wanted to see him confident and calm because I wanted to impress my friends.
I wanted to tell us to stop and get out but I joined in with the adrenaline and
excitement that came over us three. We were playing loud music, I think it was
still Dre featuring Snoop Dogg. We turned the windows down when nodding our heads
to the beat and thinking we were so cool. We were driving pretty fast and then faster
and faster and faster and then we saw a guy we knew walking down the street my
friend who was driving always bullied him and so he started shouting out mean
things to him turning back through his window to do so literally within seconds
he'd lost control of the car and we went straight into another car it was a
miracle because none of us were hurt the car was completely destroyed a couple of
moments later we saw our parents coming out of this event hall we had crashed
the car right outside of the wedding our parents were attending not only that how
came the owner of the car we had crashed into which was parked outside his house
there was a huge crowd gathering our parents were speaking to the owner of
the other car trying to explain the situation and figure
our family members and friends were shaking their heads at us looking at us
really disappointed I felt so stupid and like an idiot I learned three really
important lessons from that experience the first one is our actions affect
other people we often feel that our actions only affect us but the truth is
it effects a lot more people we were so fortunate that no one was in the car we
crashed into we were so fortunate that there wasn't a child crossing the street
but we still hurt our parents we heard the person who had the damaged car the
second lesson I learned is that we become an average of the five people we
spend most time with at that time I chose to were surround myself by people
I thought were cool and troublemakers even when I felt uncomfortable or
nervous or anxious I would hide that because I felt it made me weak or soft
your intuition and your gut is always trying to guide you if you have a voice
in your head telling you something is not good alright listen to it more I
found out afterwards that though friends actually blamed what had happened on me
this was a clear sign I was around the wrong people and lesson number three the
things we think are fun exciting and dangerous in our teens are rarely the
things we look back on as being proud of we can use our positive energy when
we're young for so much good in the world to make such a difference to our
skills talents and hobbies don't waste your potential trying to
impress people stand out by being yourself don't try to fit in by giving
up who you truly are and can be.