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Lauren Devens

Professor Christopher T. Nielson

English 101-023

24 October 2014

Senior Week

Dad, please let me go. I promise Ill be careful.

I dont know, Lauren. Im just not comfortable with it.

As a teenager, I have often felt the overwhelming desire to be included, especially within

my group of friends. This desire caused me to partake in an argument of sorts with my parents

that lasted for a few days, pertaining to a certain post-high school event known as senior week.

Senior week involved a bunch of high school graduates renting an apartment together in Ocean

City, New Jersey for a week and doing, essentially, whatever they pleased. What could go

wrong? I assumed at the time that my friends, like me, were only interested in enjoying each

others company at the beach and relaxing. So, when my friends asked me if I wanted to pitch in

on renting an apartment with them for senior week, of course I said yes. However, I did not

realize at the time how much of an issue it would be.

After this happened, I told my mother as soon as I got home. She seemed slightly

uncomfortable and confused by the situation, so I assured her that I had no interest in drinking

and partying; all I wanted was to spend a week with my friends on the beach. My mother still

seemed concerned, but less so when I described my intentions. However, I forgot to mention the

situation to my father; this act of negligence was a major mistake on my part.

When my father eventually discovered my desired involvement in senior week, he was

upset; this was partly due to the fact that neither I nor my mother mentioned it to him,
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considering we both assumed the other would do so. However, his main concern was the nature

of my request. Understandably, the idea of a bunch of teenagers being alone at the beach with no

parental supervision worried him deeply. He began researching the apartment my friends and I

planned to rent.

The apartment has a balcony, my dad noted.

Oh? I responded, uncertain as how this was relevant.

He swiveled around in the office chair in front of the computer. Someone could easily

fall off the balcony. Its not safe.

I grumbled. Dad, thats not gonna [going to] happen. My friends are smart enough not to

do something like that.

They could lean on it and break it. How much money would you have to pay for that?

my father insisted.

I repeated that I had complete faith in my friends, but my dad continued to voice his

seemingly trivial concerns about the apartment and senior week in general while I deflected them

immediately using ethos; I voiced to him my complete confidence in my friends abilities to keep

out of trouble, and assured him drugs and alcohol were of no interest to me. This method

seemingly helped my case, but my dad still remained unconvinced. In light of this, I assumed it

would be best to shift my method. As an engineer, my father always preferred to have every

situation laid out, every possible disaster thought of, and every solution decided ahead of time.

Due to this, I chose to appeal to my fathers logical way of thinking.

My friend, Taylor, is staying at her grandparents apartment a few blocks away from

where Ill be staying. If things get out of hand, I can just go stay with her, I reasoned.

My dad perked up. Thats great. Do you know exactly where it is?
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No, but I can ask.

My father nodded enthusiastically, far more comfortable with the idea of senior week

than when the conversation began.

Im sorry I sprung all of this on you at once. I promise Ill be careful and I can text you

every day to let you know how Im doing, I said, sprinkling a little pathos into my persuasion,

hoping my dad would appreciate this. While I am certain he did, my father appeared to be

satisfied simply with the logos method.

Persuasion has always been a strong point in my life. Even if I am attempting to persuade

someone to do something small, I tend to be successful. Given my persuasive, albeit sometimes

stubborn, nature, I was fairly certain from the beginning of the conflict that I would be able to

convince my parents to let me attend senior week. After much discussion, my parents agreed to

let me go. I was elated. However, after actually spending a few days at senior week, my elation

quickly turned to dismay. I ended up leaving with a couple friends four days earlier than planned,

but I do not regret going. If I had not gone, I likely would not have discovered until college what

kind of environment I was comfortable with. While certain lessons are unpleasant, they are

certainly beneficial.

While senior week was not a pleasant experience for the most part, I found I ended up

learning quite a lot about persuasion, my friends, and myself. Specifically, I learned that different

people respond to different methods of persuasion. Each method can be effective by itself, but

using all three together yields a marginally stronger argument. When presenting my case to my

parents, I utilized logos, pathos, and ethos in order to give myself the best possible chance of

going to senior week. While my wish was not particularly noble or unique, it provided me with

the opportunity to dip my feet into the waters of independence and, subconsciously, persuasion.