Greetings, friends of WEEKENDEXPERIENCES! ❤️
Perhaps I'd feel too embarrassed to go to a barbecue at your house, dear Galenkp 🤭, which is why my chosen topic for this weekend is the following:
Have you ever refused to do something that someone asked you to do but it went against your morals and ethics?
Throughout my life, I've encountered many people who, despite perhaps having a good education, always feel that temptation to take what doesn't belong to them—in short, to steal. Perhaps many do it to test the temptation that others have, and through this, they like to encourage others to do the same. Personally, I can say that the upbringing my parents gave me is well-established, and I don't like to take what isn't mine without permission.
From a young age, I've experienced many situations where people close to me have tried to entice me to copy their bad habits. The first one I remember, and have never forgotten, involved my supposed best friend when I was in my second year of high school. I was only about 13 or 14 years old. I remember we were in a store near our school buying some school supplies. They were selling shoes just like the ones I was wearing at the time. Right when we were in the store, the power went out and everything went dark. My so-called friend insisted many times that I exchange my worn-out shoes for new ones, saying that no one would notice when we left the store. I immediately told her no, but she persisted. Of course, my values never allowed me to follow her bad ideas.
I only thought about what my parents would think of me. It would have been a huge disappointment for them to find out that I could do something so serious, since for me, stealing was a serious matter.
Over the years, I've encountered many similar situations, but the good values instilled in me by my parents have led me to do things correctly. I'm the type who prefers to wear worn clothes or own few things, but only as long as I know I've obtained them legally and without harming anyone. As we say in my country, "It's best to bundle up as much as the blanket will allow."
For several years, I worked in public transportation and there I had many situations of incitement to do improper things, perhaps some of those situations that make you doubt whether you dare to do them or not, especially when they come to you selling very cheap stolen things, such as tools, spare parts for your car, stereos, etc., but I thought about it so much that I never ended up buying these kinds of things, even though sometimes I had that temptation.
One situation I remember was with a frequent passenger. Because he trusted me, he told me what he did and tried to involve me in his criminal activities. He said the risk was very low; I just had to pick him up at the store where he worked and drive him home, of course, so he could take the things he had stolen. I would only provide the taxi service. This was about 10 years ago, and even though security cameras weren't very common back then, without hesitation, I told him no. I simply preferred to work in my own vehicle, and the money I earned was enough to support my children and me. From that moment on, I made a point of never crossing paths with him again.
When you have children, everything changes, even your thoughts, and you try to be a more reasonable person (well, many of us are like that, others perhaps not). I only think about my children, and it terrifies me to think that if I did something wrong and went to jail, who would take care of them? Or just the thought of them finding out I do bad things—what moral authority would I have to correct them? That's why when we have children, we must be most careful with our actions, because later it will be impossible to correct them.
The photos shared here are my own, taken with my iPhone 11. For English translations, please use Google Translate.