The only way I passed Chemistry was by “taking advantage of the surroundings” as the smart kid next to me put it in my Placer High School yearbook.
My preacher daddy always warned me about cheating and I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyway when I had to (science classes).
Aside from Chemistry, the number of times I cheated in school were less than 20.
I graduated Placer High School with a 3.3 GPA and an 1135 SAT score (brilliant in verbal skills and bad in math).
I basically stopped cheating when I got to community college, except in math. I started out in Beginning Algebra and got a C. Then in intermediate Algebra, I got another C.
When I decided to major in Economics, I figured I had to get serious about math. I started getting up at 4 am every day to study for a few hours before school.
I was taking Trigonometry. I only cheated once in the class and it was the last time in my life that I would cheat in school.
One morning during a closed-book test, I snuck a peak into my textbook and this girl turned around and looked at me.
I think the teacher graded on a curve so she had every reason to turn me in. She didn’t.
I’ll never forget the look in her wide eyes. I decided right there I’d never cheat again.
And I haven’t. I even post my tax returns online.
