When I was 8 there was a movie that I wanted to see more than anything. This movie was the rave everywhere. It was The Yellow Submarine by the Beetles. All of the kids in school either had seen it or were making plans to see it. My opportunity finally came when a couple of my friends and I made plans to ride our bikes across town to the movie theater for the Saturday matinee. The problem was that mom was not too comfortable with me riding my bike all that way alone…without her. We negotiated an arrangement…well actually I begged until she finally gave in, somewhat. We agreed I could ride my bike on one condition. That being that I would walk it across the road when I got to an intersection. My friends met at my house and with my money in my pocket the time came and we were off. I stopped at the first intersection and walked my bike across the street, however my friends didn’t. I almost caught up with them when we arrived at the next intersection. Again I walked across the street with my bike, and again my friends didn’t and I found myself alone trying to catch up. By the time I made it to the next street I decided that it wasn’t worth it and I followed my friends across the street while riding my bike. We were sailing along with visions of the Beetles foremost in our minds when all of a sudden there she was, mom. She had followed us too see if I would indeed walk my bike across the intersections as agreed. As soon as I saw her I knew my goose was cooked. No matter how hard I begged I had to put my bike in the back of the car and go home to spend the rest of the day in my room. I didn’t mind spending the day in my room as much as I was devastated by being embarrassed in front of my friends and I never got to see The Yellow Submarine. In fact, to this day I still have never seen the movie that at the time I would have given anything to have had the opportunity to see. It turns out that I did learn that when I made a deal with my mother that I needed to keep it not because she could find out that I didn’t keep it but because I knew that keeping agreements was the right thing to do. Lesson learned!