I Think That's The Wrong Sign

I was driving around in my car on a late Monday evening. I knew I was looking for something but I wasn't sure of it just yet.

Let me start from the beginning and introduce myself, my name is Marcus Simmons. I still sadly live at home with my parents and my older sister ( I always thought you were supposed to move out when you turned 18 but here she is 2 years later living under the same roof). Everyday I wake up at 7:30am to go to a high school I don't care about, to go to classes I also don't care about. I suppose I just told you a little white lie, the only class I actually pay attention in and enjoy is art. On this particular Monday I woke up 20 minutes late, which would mean I would get to school 20 minutes late, which would mean I would miss 20 minutes of the only class I didn't dread going to. I walked into the art room 9:22 every pair of eyes were on me including Mrs. Jameson. 

"You must have had quite the Sunday night if you are late to my class." She said with a little laugh at the end. 

I replied in possibly the most sarcastic tone ever. "Well you know me always out partying."

"I bet." She said matching my sarcasm.

Not just talking to me anymore but now the whole class she said. "You know high school is supposed to be fun, you guys are supposed to throw big parties and stay up all night. You're supposed go out and do random things just because it seems fun!"

I looked around the room to see some classmates' reaction to this but nobody even batted an eye.

"Fine." She said, "If you're not going to do these things on your own then I will make you, your next assignment is to go out and do something exciting and make an art piece about it."

Great, I thought now that means I have to move around to pass another class. The only other class I have to move around for is gym and there is no way I am passing that class. All through the day I was thinking of something I could do for art class but all day I couldn't think of anything. I got home around 4 as usual and guess who was laying on the couch. Yep you guessed it my older sister.

"Hey Alissa, when you were my age what kind of things did you do for fun."

Without looking up from her phone she gave the wonderful answer of "I don't know, I probably just drove around."

With that wonderful input from Alissa I still didn't know what to do but I guess I could just drive around until I found something that peaked my interest. So that's what I did after supper. Once I finished eating I grabbed my keys and left. I drove up one street and down the next. An hour later I somehow ended up at a beach, I didn't even bother getting out because what am I going to paint the ocean, I don't think so. I just drove around (thank you Alissa for those very descriptive words.) for about another hour or so until I decide it was time to head home. I was looking out the window for something that would make a great art piece and boom there it was. A sign. Not just any old sign. An old bus stop sign that looked like it had about 3 years of dirt caked onto it. In a dramatic turn of events I speed away from the scene. I look over to my right and what do I see, the bus stop sign. What have I done? I think. Wait I'll be fine, I won't get in trouble for this. I don't even think I have seen a bus in this town. I get home and very quietly take the sign up to my room and I start painting. The next day I bring the finished product to the teacher but she only gave me a 75% because she said and I quote "Stealing is bad." She also said something about it being "Illegal" but I'm not sure I fully believe her. I guess if want to pass all my other classes ( except gym because there is no saving that mark) I will have to stop stealing government property.

Ever since that fateful Monday I knew what I wanted to do with my life and no it wasn't steal street signs but it was graffiti. Once the teacher had graded my project I decided out of the goodness from my heart to put the sign back. ( I don't know where that goodness was when I took the sign in the first place but it's here now and that's all that matters. Right.) It took me a while to find the place I originally found it, but I do think I found the right place, if not and you have been waiting at a bus stop for a little while now. Opps! Sorry about that little inconvenience. I just set the sign on the ground because let's face it I don't own any tools to reattach it properly. The colors of paint I used, the color of the silver pole behind it and the green grass under it went together so well. Later on in that week I actually went to the beach but I obviously didn't go to look at the ocean. I spray painted the garbage cans. I just thought garbage cans are so ugly and they smell bad. I didn't fix the smell part but at least I made them look a little prettier.

I guess every story is supposed to have a moral or a lesson so I guess the lesson I just taught you is don't steal street signs if you want to do good in school but do steal street signs if you want to find what you are passionate about.