國外大學essay范文:Learning the Hard Way 學習困難的方法
 

“哈嘍扎克，我們全部人準備外出去莊園，我們會在那玩得很開心，我為你們大家準備了一個驚喜，你們只要六點到這里，一切都會準備妥當了”。凱爾掛掉了電話接著又打起了電話，我換上了一件干凈的襯衫和短褲，兩分鐘就趕到了他家，我對凱爾空蕩蕩的驅動方式提示給了個白眼，他告訴我說已經有六個人來到了莊園在一張桌子邊，晚餐過后我們走過去看辦公場所，為這幾周到來的一個前奏.

凱爾讓我們進了他的車庫，給我們看了一封大紅的信件，上面寫著S，T，C和P。在四路站口有一個施工區，我假設這是在13縣道和34縣道，路面正在拓寬。這有一個臨時停止標志因為有一面墻被拆換掉了，在去回收廠的路上我很少停駐在這個標志，凱爾議論道，對于一個十六歲沒有女朋友并且發覺自己每周都在凱爾那這已經足夠令人信服了。
 

Learning the Hard Way 

 

“Hi Zac, we are all going out to Hacienda and then we’re all gonna have some fun. I have a surprise for you all. Just be here at six and it’ll be all set.” Kyle hung up the phone and resumed his calling. I threw on a clean shirt and shorts and arrived at his house with two minutes to spare. My blank stare at the empty drive way prompted Kyle to tell me that the six others already went to Hacienda and were getting a table. After dinner we walked to Linway and watched Office Space, a prelude for the weeks to come. 

 

Kyle led us into his barn and showed us a big red octagon with the letters S,T,C, and P on it. “There was a construction zone at the four-way stop,” he said. I presumed this was at county road 13 and county road 34 where the road was being widened. “There was a temporary stop sign up because the one his wall was being replaced. I merely stopped this sign from going to the recycling plant,” Kyle argued. Convincingly enough for a sixteen year old who didn’t have a girlfriend and found himself at Kyle’s every week. The wounds of peer pressure were starting to bend my ethics and moral standards. "Are you suggesting you want us to help you do this again?" I asked. The grin on his face was a definite yes. I let my teenage curiosity make the decision for me, “Sure, it sounds like a good time.” The inner snapping sound echoed the breakage; my values which I corrupted, were temporarily on hold. 

 

Kevin made his opinion known and left after condemning Kyle for his actions. Josh avoided the conversation and told us he was meeting his brother soon for a late night Steak N Shake run. Greg and Troy had their suspicions and didn’t know if it was the right thing to do. Greg didn’t think it would be fun and Troy thought if his parents ever found out, it would be no more Friday and Saturday nights. #p#分頁標題#e#

 

Morally, we all knew it was wrong, but Kevin was the only one who blatantly voiced his opinion on it. Mark and Jeremy had no problem with taking signs. I was in the middle. One of my best friends, Greg, was choosing no. My other best friend, Kyle, suggested this escapade. 

 

For the next five months we consistently planned raids on snatching signs, or what we called government safe-ways. We were naïve enough to think we were doing ourselves a favor for our parents. “They’re paying taxes all the time: federal taxes, state taxes, county tax, property tax, sales tax,” as I tried to ramble off as many types of taxes that I knew. “It’s about time we started taking things on behalf for our parents, they paid for them,” Kyle chipped in. “Besides, who’s gonna care about a sign they were going to get rid of anyways,” Mark added. 

 

One Monday evening we were in Kyle's basement and heard, creak, creak, creak, the sound of someone coming downstairs. Kyle's dad had solved our puzzle and remarked to us, "I keep seeing more signs being added to that barn every week and it doesn't take much to figure out where you boys are going late night on the weekends." He wasn’t taking our “logical” counter argument too well and gave us some dire consequences if he ever caught us again. That past weekend was the last time we made a trip to go sign snatching; second to last I should say. We couldn't complain, the winter season was upon us it was our last planned time to go. 

 

May had just turned to June and school had just been released for the summer. “Hey Zac! What are you doing tonight?!” It was Kyle again, and I knew this couldn’t be good. 

 

“Dude, it’s nine in the morning! Some people like to sleep in when they don’t have to work.” I was not too thrilled with this call. It had stormed violently the night before and I did not have a good night’s sleep. 

 

“Oh, bottle it up you weenie. Guess what, guess what, guess what?” Coming from Kyle, anything repeated three times is good, really, really, really good. 

 

“What,” I grunted, not giving him the satisfaction of how I started to enjoy the conversation. 

 

“We’re going out tonight. My parents left this morning for Ohio and will not back until tomorrow. It is time to get our revenge and take that sign. I’ll call Mark and Jeremy to see if they are interested.” Kyle and Jeremy were still bitter about cleaning up trash from the side of the road one hot afternoon during their Environmental Science class. I didn't mind doing it as much as they did; I thought it was refreshing to get out of the classroom even though we were picking up trash, although those bright orange vests were rather annoying. Half of me wanted that sign and the other half told me it was wrong. I had three others to help push me along. Jeremy and Kyle prized that piece of metal; Mark just wanted to have a good time. #p#分頁標題#e#

 

I was in the basement talking to Mark and Jeremy when the hour of revenge finally came. It was one o’clock in the morning and Kyle was at the gas station filling up for the adventure. The four of us were ready to go, dressed in black camouflage. We went outside when we heard Kyle drive in and reviewed our plans. 

 

My body became sticky and I could taste the moisture in the air. “We’d better hurry. That storm is bearing down.” I was in no hurry to get wet, and neither were they, but I knew we were going to do whatever it would take to get that sign out of the ground. The intersection of Kercher Road and Indiana Ave. was no easy task. But then again, this sign was our high school tormentor. 

 

The night was quite busy to our surprise. We drove the square mile surrounding the sign for forty-five minutes. “All clear,” Jeremy yelled from the bed. Finally. Kyle stopped the truck and we all emptied out to do our job. I was the look-out person. I stood at the intersection and looked out for cars coming from every direction. Typically I was a puller, the one who heaves the sign from the ground, but not tonight. It was so silent I could hear sound of oil dripping from the truck to the ground. I could hear the sound of my conscious. "What am I doing, not again? It's too late to turn back now. We would be in deeper with Kyle's dad too!" 

 

It was broken by Kyle, who arrived to the sign first. He pulled and yanked and the sign would not budge. Kyle called for Mark and the two of them rocked the sign back and forth trying to loosen the soil underneath. Nothing happened. Mark then tried to lift, but it still would not move. 

 

“Zac, get over here, we need your help,” Kyle and Mark said in unison. “Alright, just a sec, let me call Jeremy. Hey Jeremy, come here and lookout for a while,” I said in my soft yet loud voice. I scrutinized the two until I took grip of the Bethany Christian Adopt-A-Highway Environmental Science sign and suddenly found my hands scrapped and bloodied. Jeremy spotted a car and we left the scene without our prize, never to return. I had failed. We all had failed. I compromised myself again and came away disappointed again. 

 

The next four months proved to be pure hell for Kyle, Mark, and I. Little to our knowledge on that night, we had been watched. Not by a person but by a living creature, poison ivy. How did this three-headed monster know we would be wearing sandals that night? How were we supposed to know this adopt-a-highway had an aura? It is Bethany Christian's sign, but still. Who put it there? 

 

I developed a small red rash on the tops of each of my two feet. It slowly rose up my ankle to the bottom of my thigh. I had a permanent sunburn from my waist down for four months. Instead of burning, this rash itched. It itched day and night. The only thing that triggered this itching sensation was moving or thinking. All I wanted was a good embalmment. I smelled like rubbing alcohol for the whole summer. Every morning and every evening I rubbed rubbing alcohol on the rash to draw the puss and oils out. I couldn’t shake anyone’s hand, I couldn’t touch my food, and I couldn’t do anything but be. I thought to myself, “Why couldn’t we be caught? I could’ve paid a fine and be healthy. Then I would be having an enjoyable summer” #p#分頁標題#e#

 

This was the last time I did anything clearly so illegal and immoral. I was overcome by pressure and my willingness to detour myself off the road to see what things were like on the curb. I wanted to fit in and have some fun. I blamed my own guilt and anger from my ethical choices on my high school's road sign, instead of fixing them myself. My vision was cleared by my rash embarrassment.