Have you ever done anything illegal or stupid as teen?

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At 18 My friend and I decided to hitchhike to Sicily from Bristol in England. We packed our bags and left a couple of hours later. After three days we got robbed while we were at a beach and spent the next ten days sleeping rough in Southern Italy. We had one pair of flip-flops and one pair of sunglasses between us which we took turns wearing. The local police gave us a small amount of cash so we ate one or two buns each day and a couple of tomatoes each.

I remember the soles of our feet were totally flat with no arches or gaps left between the toes, that was from walking on hot roads. To top it all of we were wearing long swimming shorts with palm tree motifs and I had an African tye-dye shirt on that had a very low neckline and lots of fancy golden embroidery. I woke up one morning with a mosquito bite on my eyelid and my eye swollen shut. There were run-ins with police, dogs and criminals. Eventually, we got all the way down to Sicily where we were safe with our friends.

I stole a packet of currant buns when I was a teenager, because my 'friend' told me to. The buns were sitting in a container outside a shop at about 6am, having just been delivered. Unfortunately, there was a policeman driving past at the time and we ended up being taken to the police station, having our parents called in, and being given official warnings. Not one of my finer moments!

The whole task of the teen years is to "individuate," or become a person independent of your parents (by independent, here, I don't mean living away from home, having a job etc, but rather, having your own style, opinions, etc.). And the whole task of parents is to keep your kids alive through those years.

I think people who DIDN'T rebel a bit as teenagers are likely to have more trouble later on, possibly a harder time living independent from their parents or entering a romantic relationship.

A little rebellion is good for the soul.

All that being said, I was remarkably boring in high school.

In twelfth grade the dean of students call me into her office to tell me that a former "teacher" threatened to file a stalking report against me for dialing her phone number and hanging up

She gave her address to students and told them to send (mail) some essays over there, so I wrongly assumed that using someones address was the same as using their phone number

Her phone number was in the phone book

Maybe there was no stalking involved and the "teacher" should have tUght Theater instead of English





Not everything I did as a teen or adult was smart

It is subjective what is "stupid"

Illegal?

I was too scared of jail to do anything illegal, besides things like jaywalking

Done something stupid? Plenty!

Jumped from the 2nd floor balcony
Crossing through the apartments' 2nd floor balconies
Walked across town during a category 4 storm alone for hours
Climbed on someone else's house roof
Hid under a car while it's ignitions on
Nearly broke someone's car door with another car door
Broken a wooden door though I've done this before teenage years
Shot someone hurt with a toy shotgun
Jumped out of a second floor and running on a school roof (while chasing a bully)
Punched a frat bully boy's gut out of rage and fought 5 students
Skipped classes for 3 months
Photo bombed faculty and guess of honor pictures
Clowned around behind a very strict teacher while sneaking behind him and being late
Jumped from a moving vehicle

Many more I couldn't remember.
I jaywalk everyday, and I still occasionally purposely touch something hot or something that send shocks and still not deterred by it.

Those are just stupid stunts. If it's about stupid mistakes, they're endless.


Illegal? Not much.
Various acts of trespassing and got away with it.
And jaywalking isn't considered illegal here yet.



Yet I never smoke, never drank, never tried drugs, never had a boyfriend, never been in clichés, never ran away, never did parties, heck I never owned a phone as a teen, never really rebelled against my parents -- they're actually more permissive, I just chose not to do things that parents usually don't permit their kids to do or have.

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I never did anything illegal as a teenager but a couple of times in my early 20's I shoplifted... and I never got caught.

I just took random small knickknacks from stores and removed the barcode stickers and stuck them in my pockets just to see if I could get away with it (which I did). But I would never do something like that again.

I'll probably end up being the black sheep of this thread and maybe shouldnt even post it at all but my juvenile record is 4 pages long.

Stupid? My teens and 20s could be described as one extended act of stupidity.

Illegal? Lots and lots and lots of drugs. But no theft or assault or rape or murder or anything like that. I was always a great respecter of others' rights.

Do you mean that I got caught for or got away with?

I still do stupid things and things others wouldn't dream of doing.

I try and stay legal these days but my home is totally illegal and nothing on my land has complied with any regulatory standard unless it is for common sense reasons.... Like working to correct electrical and gas safety standards.

Laws are only guidelines agreed by a percentage of the population and not always a majority.

I prefer common sense codes like respect and equality.

Illegal: Made extra money by buying vinyl record albums, making bootleg cassettes, and then selling the cassettes at school.

Stupid: Explored and mapped out a cave near my hometown, alone and without telling anyone.

Yes for example continue living

Many things. The story I am about to tell you is a great illustration of what is wrong with me, as an Aspie. Sometimes I don't THINK before I act.

One time, in the early 1980s, right after I got my driving license, I was driving my parents' car (my sister was in the car next to me, still too young to drive). We thought we saw Kelly and Shelly, the twin brothers, in a car driving the other way (we think there was a third and possibly a fourth person in the car, maybe they were on a double date!). So we turned around, and followed them dangerously closely. I then turned on the HIGH HEADLIGHTS to see if it was really them.

Knowing what I know today, this was incredibly rude and stupid. What if a deer had run out into the road and they had to stop quickly? (trust me, there were many deer in this area) What if they wanted to stop quickly just to cause a car accident and get me in trouble with my parents? And why couldn't I have been satisfied with a feeling that "I saw them but they didn't see me"?

Nowadays, I try to be super-cautious, and not just in my driving. I try to be careful when talking to people too. "If a tree falls in the forest and there are no humans around, does it make a sound?" Anyone who asks you that is just trying to make themselves feel smarter by tricking you with a trick question. So I pause before answering and analyze whether they are trying to trap me with word games.

I try to think about the negative consequences of anything before I act these days. I am not immune from doing stupid or dangerous things, but I am less likely to do them -- and my caution makes me safer today.