It was a cold Christmas morning. I could smell the pines of the Christmas tree. I walked downstairs looking hopefully under the tree. The ground beneath the tree was bare. I looked frantically around the house wondering if  ‘Santa’ forgot to put the gifts under my tree. How could it be so? “This had to be a dream,” I thought. I pinched myself; it was real. I was as disappointed as the forgotten toy in the attic. Later, when they woke up I learned that my parents decided not to give me my presents. I was in an atrocious mood and I took it out on my parents. They noticed this and were not in the disposition to forget it. As a punishment for being disrespectful, irresponsible, and ungrateful they ‘canceled Christmas’. After giving me an I-am-tired-of-your-crap talk, they reminded me how this year was filled with me getting in trouble and disobeying their rules. They wanted me to change my ways and learn from my mistakes that I had previously made. I reluctantly listened to what they had to say, I overlooked it because of how angry I was. I hated them because I believed that I was not in the wrong and they just wanted to see me suffer. But really they wanted to help me.

They made it seem as if they were perfect kids and never did anything wrong. When I said this to them my dad told me a story about how his parents did the same thing to him. He was very disrespectful and ungrateful for his parents so they took away Christmas. He was devastated but he learned a lot from the experience. That’s when it hit me. I had an epiphany and realized that they weren’t perfect and no one is perfect. Every single one of us makes bad decisions but we learn from it. I understood that I wasn’t going to be the perfect kid I was going to do dumb things and do things that aren’t right but I will learn wrong from right. My parents didn’t want to see me suffer they just wanted to set an example so that I could learn from what I had done. After a deep conversation I finally understood why they had done this. It was truly a turning point in my life and as much as I dreaded it, I am grateful they did it.

I believe that no one is perfect everyone makes mistakes and learns from them. This connects to my life in many ways. When I fail a test or quiz I won’t overthink it, instead I will overcome and figure out a new way to study so I will not fail again. Also, whenever I make a bad play in sports I’ll learn not to do it again because I’ll learn from my mistakes.

In conclusion, after the lesson I was given I realized that my parents are no better than me and made mistakes too, they only wanted me to learn from what I did. I know that I will use this later in life in order to overcome problems.