Normally I was the “good kid.” I always followed the rules and rarely got in trouble, which is why this was a rare occasion. I was pretty young probably four or five. I had been sick for about a week, strep throat and a double ear infection. I was running on very little sleep. I was a very energetic kid but had been stuck inside all week. No friends, no sports and no school.

I was in my room trying to waste time, I was supposed to be sleeping. “Get some rest it will make you feel better,” my mom always said. I couldn't just lay there and sleep it was the middle of the afternoon, I had things to be doing. So being the energetic little kid I was not being able to just relax I decided to do a little craft. I grabbed the the tube of red cherry Chapstick on my side table and a piece of paper from my desk. I started scribbling on the paper with the chapstick. I loved the way the smooth chapstick felt across the paper. I later decided to become a little more adventurous I took the chapstick and snuck out of my room wearing my little pink slippers and my favorite hammy down pajamas. My hair was pulled back in the little pig tails my mom had put in hair. I opened the chapstick and in big capital letters I scrawled MORGAN across the hallway walls.

Thinking back on it I wonder why I wrote my own name, its like leaving your own name at a crime scene. After I was finished with my master piece I realized what I had done and sprinted back into my room, and snapped back into reality…. “I had just gotten myself into some trouble,” I thought. 

I heard footsteps and quickly hopped on my bed. I heard them call out my name in an angry tone…

“Morgannnnnn!” I snuck out of my room like a sad puppy dog. Then they asked, “Did you do this?” Obviously they knew it was me but it seemed like the only thing to say. I shyly answered, “yes..” They told me to go back into my room. They didn't seem as mad as I thought they would be. I was eavesdropping from my room as usual. I heard them talking, “She's just a kid,” my dad said.

“Thats never going to come off!” my mom replied.

I started to get nervous, what were they gonna say? They finally came in, they both had that “were disappointed in you look” on there faces. They kept asking, “Why did you do that?” I had no answer. I had absolutely no idea why I wrote on the wall. My only explanation was that I was bored. I knew it was a stupid idea but at the time i just wasn't thinking. Maybe it was the lack of sleep. Maybe it was for an adventure. I was just curious and wanted to know what would happen. In my mind I thought that the chapstick would be like the dry erase markers my teacher used. I thought it would come right off. As the conversation continued the guilt kept adding up. The only words I could manage to get out were “I'm sorry,” I sobbed, “I'll help clean it up.”

My parents forgave me and I spent the rest of the evening side by side with my parents scrubbing away at my graffiti addition to the hallway. My name never came off that wall to this day. Sometimes on a nice day when the sun is shining through the hallway window just right. You can still see my name scrawled across the wall in all capital waxy chapstick letters.