Restoring My Honor

Every year during my high school days, my high school would host a novice debate tournament.  From my sophomore year on, I attended it as a judge, but my own novice year I was a competitor.  As usual, my mom handed me a couple of dollars to buy food at the tournament, since I'd be there for lunch and probably dinner.  This time, however, I lost the money.  When lunch came I couldn't find those precious dollars anywhere, and I was hungry.  Science had proven that if you don't eat enough your brain slows down and your concentration suffers--consequences I couldn't afford at a debate tournament.  Clearly, this was an emergency.  Then it occurred to me that this tournament was at my own school, and that my very own locker was just around the corner, in that corner was a little colored cardboard box, and in that box was some money.

Enter moral dilemma:  The money wasn't really mine. I was a member of Key Club, and we had been "trick or treating for UNICEF."  The money in that little cardboard box was the donations I had collected from my friends and peers.  The box was printed with facts about how it only took something like four cents to buy enough vitamin A to prevent a child from going blind.  But I was hungry!  If I didn't eat, I was sure I was going to lose my debate rounds, and for such a silly unforgivable reason as losing a few dollars!  I couldn't let that happen!  So I sneaked down to my locker, opened the little box, and stole $3.14 from charity.  I'd bring money to replace what I was taking on Monday, I told myself.

Monday morning, I forgot.  It's ok, I told myself, The fundraiser goes until Halloween. I technically have two weeks to bring the money.

I put it off, I forgot, I didn't have exact change, I forgot.  Halloween came and went.

The next year, I wasn't part of the Key Club UNICEF drive, but I saw my friends wandering around with the same, bright orange boxes asking for donations to save children.  A voice in the back of my head reminded me that I owed $3.14 to a good cause, and I resolved to bring the money to donate to the drive.  I forgot, I put it off, I didn't have exact change, I forgot.

The same thing happened my junior year, and again my senior year.  I graduated from high school having never paid my debt.  No big deal, right?  I just stole money I had collected from people in the name of charity and let kids go blind.

Every once in a while, at college, I'd see tables for UNICEF set up around campus and immediately would be struck by an attack of conscience.  But I also never carried cash, and was just as forgetful as ever.

This morning, eleven years to the month of taking that money from my locker, I cleansed my honor.  I went to the UNICEF website and made a donation that reflected the original debt plus a whole lot of guilty-conscience money.  The satisfaction I feel is a bit like the feeling of actually getting ALL of the ring around the sink drain cleaned and scrubbed off, and the sink looks back at you pearly white like it hasn't been in years.

I challenge people to duels now, 'cause I've got honor again!  My unstained honor will not be smirched again!

Crap.  I owe that one kid from high school $25.  Do you think he has a website and except credit cards?