Personal Essay

Have you ever thought you’d be in a position where, you had to decide whether to do one thing, or do another, and both weren’t good choices. Well, I had to make a snap decision once, and I chose wrong, so I’m paying for it with my life. Do I regret what I did No!! Was it wrong, maybe, but who’s the one to say they wouldn’t do it if they were in my position? I was betrayed and deceived by a woman. When I found out something this serious, it became the point of no return for me because I was in too deep I couldn’t let it go. Anyway, Hi my name is Danny, or now commonly known as inmate 7834269, and I’m twenty five years old as of January 2008 this year. If you want to know the decision I made, that led up to this moment, I’ll have to start at the beginning. It was January 4, 2000, right when I just turned 18 years old, which was the best day of my life because I got my first ever computer. If I’d asked my dad before I turned 18 he would’ve contemptuously dismissed me. My dad disliked them with a passion. He was from the  old school and he thought they’d take over someday, but pop always told me when I turned 18, grew a brain and seemed responsible enough to have a computer, he’d let me get one because it was going to expand my social life. So, once I got “plugged in,”, I signed up on a website called MySpace and made account to immediately make new friends everywhere. All the people that were around in Maryland started popping up and some kids from my school as well. I was on my way to popularity. A few uneventful weeks go by, and I get a pop up friend request from some girl named Isabella who says she recognizes me because we go to the same school. Like me, she’s 18 and has a bunch of pictures of herself on her MySpace page. I didn’t recognize her, but I didn’t think anything of it because it’s a big school and besides,what do I know, I’m just trying to become popular. So I accepted her friend request and over the next few days and weeks, we started to talk more, and it seemed like we had made a connection.

          We would always talk after I got home from school and, eventually, time passed by. By This time , it’s the beginning of second quarter, she know practically everything about me but the funny thing is I barely know anything about her I just didn’t realize it at the time. I started to look back on stuff we talked about and it seemed really weird and it occurred to me it’s always been about me. So the next day I ask “let’s talk about you” but I get no reply and actually she doesn’t answer back for over a week. Now the funny thing is, if she never answered back then this story would have a whole different ending and there’d be nothing to tell, but unfortunately, she did. “What’d you wanna know”, just popped up on my computer in the middle of the night.

I’ll admit I was happy cause to be honest, I already started liking her even though I knew nothing about her. In Spite of that, I guess i was drawn in by the mystery of her. So note to self;curiosity kills the cat. Ok, where was I, oh yeah I asked her a question but the only thing that popped into my mind was”do you wanna meet and hang out?” Again there was no answer. Silence. Then suddenly, there it was“sure, how bout friday night?!” “Cool” I said typing so quickly before I even realized she was typing somethings else. “Great, Can’t wait to meet you! I have a great place in mind, so I’ll make the reservation, I just need your credit card number,” There it is. So slight, so subtle, I barely even notice that I’m already answering her because I’m thinking about how awesome it’ll be that I’m finally going to meet her. So slick, that I don’t even realize I’ve already typed it...Send, and it’s done. Her rapid reply “Cool I’m thinking Barnaby’s 8:30?”. “Great, see you then!”. In that moment I was hooked but I also was caught. Caught up. Friday comes quick a flash and now I’m just burning daylight, looking and the time continuously and it seems like all time has stopped. It’s like watching grass grow or watching paint dry, and it’s excruciating. Note to self; I really need to get a hobby. The bell rings, now I’m free, and it’s time to get ready for my date. . . My date with destiny.

        Barnaby’s looks like a great place from the outside. You can hear cool music playing it’s decorated, has outside seating and it’s packed. I realized I only know what Isabella looks like from her picture, but she knows what I look like and it’s not a big place. I'm just going to go inside and wait or she’ll already be waiting for me, it’s simple don’t overthink it just chillax Danny. The hostess see’s me and asked if I have a Reservation I tell her my name, but there’s no reservation.”Oh my bad, it’s under her name Isabella I say confidently”. The hostess checks and says apologetically,” No, sorry sir, there doesn’t seem to be a reservation under that name either”.“ There must be some mistake maybe another hostess wrote it down somewhere else!”. She looks at me Contemptuously and says “ I’m the only Hostess and I would know if I made a mistake!”. So I just go home irritated, I get back home immediately, go to my computer and message Isabella “Did you make the reservation?”. But before I sent It I got a call from the fraud department of my bank card company saying, I’ve gone over my spending limit of five thousand dollars. The only other person that had my info other than me was Isabella. It made no sense, the purchases weren’t things a 18 year old girl would purchase. It’s weird, they’re old guy purchases, something I wouldn’t buy that’s for sure. Apparently, I'm also a lover of 30 year old, aged bourbon because I rang a pretty big bar tab at Lucky’s Billiards too...”Not!” even if could drink legally, I wouldn’t be caught dead drinking that crap, it’s nasty. . . I’m more of a Mike's Hard Lemonade kind a guy.

    So, before I sent that email out, I thought I might just go do a little investigating and find out what exactly is going on with my credit card, and this mysterious Isabella. I went over to the billiard hall and walked in. Immediately this Jarhead roughneck contemptuously stepped to me and spouted off, “Yo, think you made a wrong turn somewhere sprout?how’s bout showin’ me some ID,son?” I didn’t answer right away I just looked down for a moment and then I just said confidently,” no, you don’t need to see my ID.. I’m just here for a minute to find out some information about somebody that was using my card in here” as I brushed past him In the direction of the bar. Coming