When I was in first grade, I had the genius idea to cheat on my spelling test. I made a notecard with all the correct word spellings and hid it under my little pencil box that sat on my desk. For every single word, I would peek under my pencil box to see if my spelling was correct. My retention of the spelling was very poor, so every few seconds I would go back to look at the notecard.
My first grade teacher, the wonderful Mrs. Hill, came over to me. I do not remember what she said to me, she was probably just checking in because I was doing weird things, but I ended up crying. Like fully bawling my eyes out. I had never done anything of that sort before, and I was mortified. I think I was less worried about being caught, and more worried about disappointing Mrs. Hill, a figure I looked up to. In retrospect, I was perhaps the most obvious cheater out there; how many times can one child look under a pencil box before it becomes weird and clear that something is off?
I had always been a really good kid when it came to academics, if it can even be considered academics in elementary school. I was normally ahead of the curve, and I read like a mad man. So I really have no idea what prompted me to cheat on my test. I didn’t have a grade to uphold then, nor did I have something to lose if I didn’t absolutely obliterate a singular spelling test.
Since then, cheating, especially on tests, has been something that freaks me out. Maybe my anxiety has just gotten worse, but I would like to blame it on my poor life choices in first grade. I can be not cheating whatsoever and still worry that someone is going to think I am. It is one of my worst nightmares to be accused of cheating on a test. I hear about people I know cheating on tests and getting away with it, and it astounds me. The guilt would probably eat me up and I would confess before anything could happen. I would be a terrible criminal.
So it is safe to say that I would do almost anything before cheating on a test, but in a way I am glad my first grade brain decided to cheat on that spelling test. Now I won’t cheat on tests because that memory haunts me, and I have another hilarious memory of younger me.