The why bother? moment

[Guest guest]

I don't know about all of you, but I distinctly remember having

a " why bother? " moment with my mom. She accused me of sleeping with

my boyfriend when I hadn't, lying when I hadn't, saying things I

hadn't said, and you know the routine. Well, in high school I

decided I wanted to start exercising, so I started waking up at 5:30

to do it. Mom was convinced I was doing drugs. She'd come down

every morning as I was doing aerobics in front of the television set

and hiss, " You're doing drugs, aren't you?!? I know you are.

Nobody wakes up at 5:30 to exercise. " After the third day in a row

of this, I have a very clear memory of thinking, " Why do I even

bother? " and it was then that I began to engage in some admittedly

very reckless behavior, figuring, well, if she's going to accuse me

of doing it anyway, might as well see what it's all about.

Fortunately for me none of my escapades really turned out to be

anything lasting, but the memory of that thought is so vivid. Did

any of you have similar experiences, sort of like the anti- " ah-hah "

moment?

The irony of all this is that up until that point I was such a

pollyanna, and it was only after her campaign of false accusations

that I started actually misbehaving. And then of course any time I

got caught it only " proved " her previous accusations.