I think I missed that lesson...

I got a parking ticket the other day. I've actually received several parking tickets over the past year. This time it was for parking for two and a half hours in a two-hour zone. I plucked the ticket off of my windshield, walked over to the State College parking office, calmly paid my $12, thanked the teller, and left. Am I annoyed that I have to pay $12 for those extra 30 minutes? Well, yes. But I didn't file a complaint, yell at the teller, make up 101 excuses. "But I was ONLY thirty minutes over the limit! Come on. This is SOOO unfair!" Because, guess what. IT WAS MY OWN FAULT!! I saw the two-hour parking sign. I knew I would be parked there for longer than two hours. But I decided to take the risk. And this time, I lost.

Now, I'm not telling this story to brag about how reasonable and even-tempered I am. Well, maybe partly to brag. But, seriously, whatever happened to a person accepting the consequences of their actions? As far as I know, teachers, parents, and the like have tried their darndest to teach their kids that when they mess up, there are consequences. That's just the way it is. Deal with it. Apparently my generation was all absent the day they went over this concept at school. We were probably all too busy filing complaints against our first-grade teachers because we got our names on the board for talking, but the kid sitting next to us didn't. "Hey, he was talking too. NO FAIR!"

Now, this wouldn't be so disturbing if my generation weren't becoming adults. Adults with kids. That we're supposed to raise. And teach about... responsibilty???