Madeline vs. Me? No Chance.

       Now I’d have to say that anyone who had the choice of going to prison or continuing college and staying with their family would obviously choose the latter. However, after having a bit of a heated argument, well…more of a one sided argument with Madeline, she sure changed my mind. I never thought a girl so small could be such a pistol! So basically I stood there a good half hour being ranted to about how I couldn’t be more wrong…not to mention wimpy.

      So listen to this- She started to tell me how going to prison was the courageous and right thing to do. She said it was the only way to get anything done. She even said she is braver than a man and up for change in this mess of a world. I tried to interject and tell her that a young woman should not take on the responsibility of changing America, as well as ruining her own life. She interrupted me and even got right up in my face. “If ANYONE is going to make a change, it’s going to be a young rebel and radical like me!” she exclaimed. She was certainly in no position for her to be backing down the argument.

        As time went on, I have to say she made some damn good points. Madeline kept ranting and ranting telling me how going to prison was her own, individual, bold action. She told me this was the only way to start any reformation. Madeline’s exact words to me were “Someone must be a god damn man about this and get something done!” I have to admit, I have never seen someone so set in their actions. In a strange way, it was kind of refreshing to see someone so persistent and sure about themselves. Madeline said that she had to put her own beliefs before her own family, regardless of their support or not. “Sometimes a chick has to fly from the nest, and this is my time”, is what she told me. She said regardless of her success or not, she would be content with herself. She made me reflect.  She asked, “Do you want to be a leader or a follower?” Madeline answered that question for me, with another question. “Don’t you want to be that person who owns up to their mistakes? That person who will go to the end of the Earth for what they believe? Or do you want to be that person that sits back and watches the world become corrupt? ….That person who tries to convince someone to do the safe thing and ‘what’s best?”

      This answer was enough for me. Maybe we would live in a better world if everyone thought this way. So many of us let ourselves get stepped all over, as our beliefs get forgotten and pushed away. Though Madeline did a fine job of belittling me and making me feel like a wimp in my own country, she convinced me that the real people and citizens in this country are the ones who have the drive to fulfill their beliefs. Well, I got owned…completely.