October 11, 2000 ~ Can You Spare a Dime?

It's been a busy week... Midterm week. But I've had a memory come haunting today, and I thought I'd write about it.

I was on a Girl Scout trip. Quite young, eleven or twelve. It was time for lunch, and the leader was treating us to lunch out. Most everybody wanted pizza, but me and three other girls wanted clam chowder, since we were at the beach, after all. The leader gave us some money and let us go to the chowder house.

She stayed at the pizza shop. We ate our chowder and it came time to pay. One of the girls said, "Hey, she won't have any idea how much this cost, how about we split the change amongst ourselves and say we left it for a tip?" The other girls thought this was an excellent idea, but I was mortified. I didn't want to cheat the waitress or our troop leader. But I didn't try to convince the group. I just said that I didn't want any of the money, and I left my share for the poor waitress. It was only $2.50.

I never told anyone about that event, and I almost forgot it. But I remembered it today and thought about what it means in regards to how I am now. If I were in the same situation now, I would tell the other girls that I wouldn't stand for such an arrangement, that I wanted the money to go to the people it belonged to. I would stand up against dishonesty and stealing.

I think I'm a lot more outspoken and self-confident now.

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