"Once when | was 17 | was scared of breaking up
with a girl because | was afraid she’d freak out, so |
told her my parents were going through a crazy
divorce and | was going through mental problems
and couldn't handle a relationship"

male 21

“On the last day in the 7th grade | was walking
through the school and came across a bunch of
guys standing around in the basement. They told
me that they were daring each other to pull the fire
alarm. None of them wanted to do it so | pulled it
and ran with some friends out the back door.
While we were running we saw the fire trucks drive
up. Apparently, | found out later, they kept the
whole school in to try to sweat out who had done it
even though they didn't know that we had ran
away. In the end another kid in a younger grade
was blamed and got in big shit and was expelled.
Then while | was in high school | saw that guy and
he was living on Granville Street. | guess there's
no lie here but whatever. | lied about having a lie. |
thought it was a good story though”

male, 21

9

“When | was about 6 years old, | had this amazing
collection of ladybugs that | had gotten from the
backyard cherry tree. | put these bugs in a mar-
garine container ‘house’, but began to realize that
they needed air. So, perched on my mother’s pris-
tine white bedspread, | proceeded to poke holes
with a large black marking pen. Needless to say
the marker and the bedspread were magnetically
drawn to one another. My mother came into the
room noticed the bedspread and | poignantly
announced that my baby brother had been coloring
her bedspread. He got a spanking and was
grounded. Me and the ladybugs, we got away
scott free?

female, 20