Life lessons seem to be learned by one of two ways, the easy way or the hard way. I certainly have been through some rough time times in my life where I made a mistake that I will never make again, because I learned from the experience. Fortunately, every lesson that I have learned over the years has been a result of my own wrong doings. I have been exposed to other situations that did not technically involve me but I still learned from another person’s mistake. My older sister served as a perfect person to learn through when I was a kid.

It was a beautiful July evening in 2011 when my father received a phone call that I will never forget. I was out computer shopping with my parents at Best Buy. My sister was at the movie theatre, waiting in line for the premiere of the final Harry Potter. I’m sure she was having a great evening until it took an unfortunate turn and dad’s phone rang.

I don’t quite remember the exact words that my dad said to my sister, but I do remember the stern and intimidating tone that he used. I was scared and I wasn’t even the one on the other side of the call! When he got off of the phone, he explained to my mom and I what had happened. Apparently, my sister had bumped into a guy’s bumper at a stoplight a few weeks before. She had exchanged information with him, even though the guy had said that he wasn’t going to need to get it repaired. However, the guy called her when she was at the movie theatre and he had decided to get his car fixed and it was going to be really expensive! Overall, it doesn’t sound too bad, she was a new driver and accidents happen. The reason behind my dad’s anger was that she didn’t tell my parents that she got into a fender bender until many weeks later!

My sister thought that she could get away with getting into an accident and not telling my parents, but she was totally wrong. As her little sister, I observed the whole situation from the outside and learned so much from her mistake. Parents really do find out everything eventually. There is no hiding from them, so I need to just fess up to them the minute something bad happens because the punishment for something like getting in a fender bender is not nearly as bad as the reparations for keeping it a secret until they find out the hard way.

So, ever since that day I always report to my parents every time I make a mistake. The time I ran into a gutter and popped my tire. I told them right away. The time I thought I broke the laundry machine. I called. The day I shattered my phone, same thing. My parents have specifically told me that they appreciate me telling them everything. Although it was at my sister’s expense, I am so thankful that I was able to learn this beneficial lesson.