Once when I was little, about eleven or twelve years old, my dad took me to a Ranger's baseball game in Arlington. The day started off wonderfully. The Rangers were winning, the weather was nice, and my dad was buying me every souvenier in sight regardless of how bad the merchants gouged the prices. It was towards the end of the ballgame when I heard a fury of male voices bellowing from a few rows behind us. I didn't know it at the time, but as the voices escalated, the men were getting angry with each other and started to advance on one another. Next thing I  knew, two grown men were throwing pushing, grappling, and throwing punches.

Now I must premise this whole observation on my world view at the time. My ideas of how adults were supposed to act had their foundations in watching my parents and my teachers. My parents were very good at their jobs. They never swore around me, never yelled at me (without just cause), and never struck me any harder than a spanking. This gracious attitude of my parents kept me from seeing the true nature of adults: that regardless of age, people can be bad.

After seeing this fight, I just thought to myself over and over, "why were two adults acting like that? They're not supposed to do that, they're ADULTS."

It occured to me then and there, as well as with many other instances down the road, that people aren't all good. Adults fight, swear, and do drugs, contrary to what I always thought while growing up in a sheltered environment. And they can be regular adults, even parents! It's a sad, but important part of life that one must learn: no one every really 'grows up' into maturity, but rather makes a choice to accept responsibilties as an adult and be a model for children and future leaders of the world.