One of my fave bloggers, Kerri Sackville has started a blogging challenge. Each Monday those participating will be required (though not through strongarming or similar) to write about a #First.

Today Kerri’s chosen our ‘First Act of Rebellion’.

I was mostly a good kid. I didn’t drink or smoke and graduated school having only experienced the occasional snog. Indeed, until in the throes of anorexia I kept few secrets from my family and friends and was fairly happy and carefree.

Most of my early girlhood crushes were on ridiculously unattainable basketballing teammates of my older brother from various parts of the State. (Yes… the less likely the better apparently!) Local boys just didn’t cut it.

However… when I was 14 I developed a crush on a guy a year above me at school. He was a bit of a footballing hero in our small hometown and several of my friends fancied him.

Mostly we liked him from afar as you did at that age. However, some of my friends were more forward and confident than I.

One Saturday night we gals were at the cinema enmasse. For some reason we’d decided against the usually-pathetic and very strictly-supervised school disco. However… during intermission we wandered the few blocks to where the disco was being held.

And… (in a surprise move) the guy we all fancied was there. So some of my friends decided that they’d blow off the second movie and go to the school disco instead. Obviously this was back in the day cinemas offered double-headers!

I was torn as I kinda knew it was wrong: although the school disco was heavily supervised; I was supposed to be at the movies.

Eventually however, I caved to peer group pressure (well…  I didn’t want my friends to have a better chance with this guy than I did!), paid my $2 and went into the disco.

I still remember us dancing (in a circle as one did back then) to Olivia Newton John’s Physical before getting that familiar gnawing feeling in my stomach. Guilt.

So despite everything… I left and and rejoined my other friends at the cinema.

When I was home – ferried about by one of our parents – I told my parents what I’d done. They were furious.

“How can we ever trust you again?!”
“You’ve betrayed our trust!”

That sort of thing.

I was angry. It wasn’t a huge deal on the ‘naughtiness’ scale, I said. It was only a couple of blocks from one place to the other, I said. The school disco was heavily supervised, I said.

But that wasn’t the point. I was supposed to be somewhere and I went somewhere else.

This probably wouldn’t be a problem nowadays – when you can ring/text/FB/Tweet and ask permission or advise your parents of your movements. But back in the mid 80s none of that was possible.

I wasn’t grounded. I didn’t go out enough for that. But, I was in trouble. And in all honestly I guess I knew what I was doing was wrong. I wouldn’t have struggled with the guilt if I hadn’t.

Were you a well-behaved kid?

My first act of rebellion – Linking with Kerri and her #Firsts challenge!