Personal Narrative #2 Piece of Advice

 

The Act and The Box

My dogs started barking at the door. Standing in the kitchen, I checked the microwave for the time and sure enough it was 3 O'clock, around the time when packages are delivered to our house. I moved toward the window next to the front door and watched as the delivery man dropped the packages off on the front step. I waited until I heard the heavy purr of the UPS truck, knowing he was leaving. I opened the door and walked to the front steps and peered down at the packages, emphasized by the sunlight. I saw most of them were in my Dad’s name, meaning they were probably some stuff from amazon, but I noticed one had the name Sean on the label. 

Obviously I knew this was my Uncle’s name, so I grabbed the boxes and ran back inside, setting them on the counter to be claimed by my parents, except the one with my uncle’s name atop. He was lying down on the couch in the living room, so I decided I would open it up for him and hand it to him. I grabbed some scissors and began to cut the tape off the box, but a feeling of intuition arose in me. I knew he was going to say something like, "Why’d you open the box? Maybe I didn't want you to see what was inside.” So I decided I would cut the tape, but specifically look away as to not see the contents within. After opening it and looking away, I called out to him.

“Uncle Sean, there's a package for you!” I exclaimed.

“Bring it here, please!” he said. 

    “Ok coming,” I said. I grabbed the box and walked into the living room and handed it to him on the couch. He grabbed it, undid the flaps, and opened it up and saw a shoe box within.

    “Great, my running shoes came,” he said.

    “Oh, cool,” I said. Feeling satisfied that my methods worked, I walked away back towards the kitchen to finish what I had done before. As I was about to turn the corner back towards the kitchen though, I heard the question.

    “Wait, I didn’t open this box?” he said.

    “Yeah, I opened for you since I was already in the kitchen and so you didn’t have to get up. Don’t worry, I made sure to not look inside till you opened it yourself,” I said.

    “That’s not the point. I would have told you if I wanted you to open it. It’s better to ask for permission than forgiveness,” he said.

“Umm, Yeah. I’ll ask next time,” I said. It stunned me. I knew something like this was going to happen right as I opened the box for him. I was just trying to do a favor. I walked away back toward the kitchen and continued about my day continually thinking about those words, as they continued to echo through my head. I realized the magnitude of them, and while I just made a minor mistake, those words would be ingrained in me for many larger decisions of life.