Changing Perspective

Changing Perspective

Angela White

Psy 220

May 20, 2012

Kathleen Speed

Changing Perspective

There are many reasons people react differently to certain situations. It can be religious, cultural, personal morals, past experiences, or even something as simple as the mood they happen to be in at the time. The situation involves my step-dad, my mom, my best friend, her mother, and me. When we were 17 years old my best friend and I went to the movies about 30 miles from home (it was the first time our parents let us leave town without them) and we did not like the movie so we left early. We went back to our hometown and instead of letting our parents know, we ran around for a while because we did not have to be home until 10. We stopped at the grocery store where I was working and while we were there my step-dad saw the car parked in the lot. When we came out of the store my car was gone. I did not know what to do so we called my friend’s mom (because I was too scared to call my own parents) and told her the car had been stolen. She knew that my step-dad had gotten the car but she played along because he had asked her to. She picked us up and took us home (we were neighbors). Of course the car was not there.

My step-dad asked how we had gotten home and where the car was as soon as I walked in the door. I told him what had happened while I was pouring out buckets of tears because I knew I would be in major trouble for this one. I was a good kid and had never gotten into any real trouble which made this much worse in my mind. When I finished telling him what had happened he said we needed to call the police and report it stolen (he had a few cop friends). So he dials the phone and hands it to me and I tell the cop what happened. A few minutes later the cop (one of my step-dad’s friends) was knocking on the door to “take the report”. I go through the story with him again still crying almost hysterically and as we are finishing up my mom comes in from work and asks...