When I was 17, I was dating a girl who would take the flywire off her bedroom window to let me sneak in late at night. One night, she came out to see me and her neighbours saw her walking around and told her parents about it in the morning.
Her dad, who was a principal at a local school, went around to my father's house to speak to him about it and let him know what had happened. My dad has always been a pretty laid back guy, I'd estimate that he has raised his voice at my brother and me perhaps once in our lives. I got pretty nervous because I was going away with my friends the next weekend for a bit of a lads weekend and I didn't want this to impact my trip so I immediately tried to cover my tracks.
I invented an elaborate story about how I let her use me as a scapegoat to her parents because she was dating a much older guy and her parents would forbid that. Thinking back, that was kind of stupid because he'd met her when she had come over but whatever. Father explained to me that it's fine and asked me to get the girl to tell her dad about it because he seemed like a nice fellow. At this point, I had to double-down on my lie, so my friends and I decided to leave a message on my dad's phone pretending to be the girl's dad (a few of my friends knew him from their primary school) and saying that she had explained everything and he knows the truth now.
Obviously he realised it was fraudulent but who cares, it got me out of trouble and I went with my friends the following weekend. The girl then told me that her dad wanted to meet me, so if I came to dinner with her parents, we could stay together. Needless to say, I said that it probably wouldn't work for me and we broke up immediately.
Anyway, I was nervous as hell over that incident. I thought all sorts of bad things would happen to me and that I was gonna end up in a lot of trouble. When nothing bad happened, I learnt a valuable lesson. The worst outcomes that you often visualise at any given time very rarely eventuate.
This is something that I've remembered and I frequently use it to relax myself if I think something awful will happen.
Her dad, who was a principal at a local school, went around to my father's house to speak to him about it and let him know what had happened. My dad has always been a pretty laid back guy, I'd estimate that he has raised his voice at my brother and me perhaps once in our lives. I got pretty nervous because I was going away with my friends the next weekend for a bit of a lads weekend and I didn't want this to impact my trip so I immediately tried to cover my tracks.
I invented an elaborate story about how I let her use me as a scapegoat to her parents because she was dating a much older guy and her parents would forbid that. Thinking back, that was kind of stupid because he'd met her when she had come over but whatever. Father explained to me that it's fine and asked me to get the girl to tell her dad about it because he seemed like a nice fellow. At this point, I had to double-down on my lie, so my friends and I decided to leave a message on my dad's phone pretending to be the girl's dad (a few of my friends knew him from their primary school) and saying that she had explained everything and he knows the truth now.
Obviously he realised it was fraudulent but who cares, it got me out of trouble and I went with my friends the following weekend. The girl then told me that her dad wanted to meet me, so if I came to dinner with her parents, we could stay together. Needless to say, I said that it probably wouldn't work for me and we broke up immediately.
Anyway, I was nervous as hell over that incident. I thought all sorts of bad things would happen to me and that I was gonna end up in a lot of trouble. When nothing bad happened, I learnt a valuable lesson. The worst outcomes that you often visualise at any given time very rarely eventuate.
This is something that I've remembered and I frequently use it to relax myself if I think something awful will happen.