Evelyn Bohl Figurative Piece: Discernment “Evelyn…? Evelyn….?... Ugh! … Evelyn, I know you hear me…” “What now? What is it this time? Ugh! Why can’t you leave me alone?” “Oh Evelyn…. Now you know what I am going to say...” “I know… but… I’ll be missing out… I will be the only one who didn’t go. Come on, you wouldn’t want to see me as the outcast… would you?” “Fine, but you know what my advice will be. Think of the overall consequences. You know them as well as I do.” “But we are only going to hang out. It’s not like I’m going to demoralize myself. How can that possibly happen in one night?” Ring!! She quickly got up from her seat, and rushed to her locker. “Hey, are you coming tonight?” “Uhh… yeah. I’ll be there” “Sweet! See you tonight at 8.” Friday, April 23, 2010, 1:33 am. “Quick! We need to stabilize her!” “1…2…3… CLEAR!” “Again.” “1…2…3… CLEAR!” “Again.” “1…2…3… CLEAR!” …………………………………… “We lost her…” “She was quicker than the last girl. What a shame. She was so young.” “I know. This one is going to be hard, when breaking it to her parents.” “Did you see that car?” “It’s not even recognizable. She’s lucky she survived pass the wreck.” “Yeah, but only for like ten minutes afterwards.” “What a shame… so young...”
“No! This can’t be! No!” “Sorry, but yes it is.” “We… I didn’t… why?” “Hate to say it, but I didn’t give you that voice inside your head for nothing.” “I tried to tell her, but you know how it is, they always have to test the waters too far.” “You know it wasn’t her time yet.” “Kids, these days. I give them chance after chance, opportunity after opportunity, and they don’t listen.” “Wait! I was listening. It’s just that…. I…”
“Ahh!” She looked over at her alarm clock, 3:33 am. She felt a chill run down her spine. She thought to herself, was it real? She got up to get a drink of water. As she slipped out from under her blanket, she bumped into her nightstand. She turned on her light. On the floor was her textbook and her notebook opened to her friends address. On the bottom of the page it said, “Remember you always have a choice.”
Evelyn Bohl Figurative Notes: My conscience is always “bothering” me. Sometimes I just want to say to it and myself, “Screw it, I’m doing what I want!” But that rarely happens. I try my hardest not to give in to peer pressure, and on occasion I give in, that is normal. And when I do give in, my guilty conscience always tags along with my thoughts. I have to be the worse liar ever. I know I have a problem with feeling guilty, but I know when I screw up and when I do, I am miserable. But honestly,
when I am in a situation and stuck on what to do, my conscience steps in. That voice in the back of my head is a fair warning to do the right thing. This situation is one of the few that I go through, and I know for a fact that every teenager does as well. My mom always tells me stories of when she was young, and how she went through the same things. She tells me that it is so important that I have discernment. Discernment is that voice in the back of my head, like my conscience, but it also that gut feeling I get when I know that I am in a bad situation. My mom tells me to trust my feelings. If I know I am in a bad situation, and I know that it is only going to get worse, I had better trust my feelings and get out ASAP! NOTES TO THE READER: It’s funny how every situation has an outcome. The bad situations are usually predictable and end horribly, but people still do it anyway. There is nothing new under the sun. Everyone knows that when someone does something bad, a consequence always follows. Wouldn’t it feel better and the outcome would be a hundred percent better if you make the right choice. The story you just read isn’t something new. We as teenagers go through this every day. High school is a breeding ground for it. We are stuck with each other all week, 180 days out of the year, and when the weekends roll around, everyone’s reaction and thought pattern is everything but responsibility. We are teenagers! We, at times, most of the time, don’t think of the end results, and do what we want without thinking of it. And in it usually takes a traumatic experience before one of us snap out of it, and say to themselves, “What are we doing? What a stupid thing to do!” By then it is usually too late. What I am trying to get across is that don’t be a follower. Trust your gut feeling. If you want to stand out and be noticed, do the right thing. It will not only make you feel better, but people notice when an act of kindness is shown, instead of a stupid comment that you said just because your “friends” were doing it. That excuse is so old. Instead of being a follower, make the mark of being the only person to do the right thing. The outcome is a 100% better, and it makes you, as a person, feel like you have accomplished what everyone thought was impossible to avoid.