Prompt #2: “Reflect on a time when you questioned yourself on a belief or idea.”
It was Monday, August 8th, I was in third grade at Delhi Public School, Greater Noida, India. We had a test on General Knowledge, “GK,” we would call it. I had studied day and night for this quiz because it was my favorite topic. I did all the questions confidently... but the last one confused me.
19) Who invented the telephone?
Alexander Graham Bell
Benjamin Franklin
Rabindranath Tagore
Thomas Edison
We did not have this in our syllabus. I had read the chapter 15 times! I could not have missed it. I tried to recollect the information for 20 minutes until the teacher said,
“Okay, kids. You have five minutes to complete the quiz.”
This made me panic. My first thought was, should I cheat? One part of my heart said yes, and the other said no. I was so confused. Finally, I listened to the part which said no. So, in a hurry, I chose option A. When I was getting up from my desk to turn my test in, my eyes went on my desk partner’s test, by chance. Sree had chosen option C.
Sree was awarded the Star Student award. This made me question my answer. I thought, “it doesn’t matter if I cheat on one question, I did the rest by myself. Plus, even StarTrek85 thinks it’s okay.” StarTrek85 was my favorite youtuber. He made videos on all sorts of things -- games, food, clothes, etc. So, I erased my answer and highlighted Option C.
The next day, the teacher handed out our graded test papers. Even though I was anxious to see my score, a part of me felt disgusted with the choice I made. How could I cheat? I hope the results went my way… but the guilt mounted. When she called my name, I got up, scared. When I held it, the feel of the paper made me feel guilty even more. I looked at it, it said,
18/19
A-
Great job!!
I freaked out. I knew it. I turned the pages, and I got to know that it was none other than Question 19. When I got back to my seat, I made a promise to myself that, “no matter what, no cheating from now on.” And, even Alexander Graham Bell said,
“It is the man who carefully advances step by step who is bound to succeed to the greatest degree.”
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