A Lesson from Experience

Have you ever rashly made up your mind about something before learning the real situation? Have you ever
suffered the consequence of doing so? I once did such an irrational thing when I was in high school, and
almost ruined a friendship because of it.

It was December, 2019. New Year's Day was approaching, but instead of getting ready to celebrate, most of
the students in our grade were tensely preparing for the early admission tests of their dream colleges. We
were going to decide if we would enroll for the first batch colleges, which are the top five colleges in China.
One day after the final rule of ranking was announced, two of my classmates came to me and asked whether
the ranking rule had been changed. Confused and doubtful, I replied that as far as I was concerned, it hadn't.
When I asked them who they heard it from, one of them, Tina, told me that another friend of hers said that it
was probably Besty, a good friend of mine. Although a part of me couldn't believe it, a bigger part of me was
quite irritated by Besty, who dared to spread distracting rumors at such critical time. As the prefect of the
grade, I felt obliged to ask the head teacher about it. Not surprisingly, the teacher responded that the rule was
never changed. Then he asked me with his eyebrows frowned, "Who started the rumor?" I answered without
thinking, "I heard from Tina that it was Besty." The teacher nodded and let me go. Despite my concern about
what would happen to my friend, I was relieved that the disturbance ended and went back to studying.

That evening, Tina came to me online and asked, "Did you tell the teacher that Besty started the rumor? I
only said 'probably'! Now that she's in trouble, I have to go and apologize to her!" Just as I was drowned in
astonishment, I received a call from Besty. I hurriedly picked up the phone and was greeted by her frustrated
accusation, "I never spread that rumor! How could you tell the teacher I did it?" I was so shocked that I
stuttered, "I didn't know... But I didn't mean..." She interrupted me, "Do you have any idea what the
consequences are? The teacher called my parents! He told them that I intentionally created confusion among
the students!" Then she hung up angrily, leaving me tongue tied.

I tossed and turned that night, feeling deeply regretful for my irresponsible words. The next day was
Christmas Day. I grabbed my present for Besty and rushed to her classroom. I found her by the window and
thrust the present into her hand. I shouted "Merry Christmas!", hoping she had already got over the
unpleasantness. To my dismay, Besty looked up and handed the present back to me without a word. I
explained eagerly. "I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have told the teacher. He just asked and I just answered." Besty
replied quietly, "You could have asked me first. I could have told you it wasn't me. –– I thought we trusted
each other." Once again I was frozen. The bell rang inappropriately. Desperation devoured me, "Are you
ever gonna forgive me?" Besty stared at me sorrily, forced a smile and shrugged, which made me feel blue
for the rest of the day.

A mistake needed to be fixed. I went to the teacher's office and explained the truth. He accepted my words
and comforted me that at least the rumor was stopped, which didn't make me feel any better. Then I went to
apologize to Tina that I shouldn't have dragged her into this. At last I typed down a long, sincere paragraph
to Besty, regretting that "I shouldn't have barked up the wrong tree." I was so relieved when I got her long
reply, saying "I can understand that it was just an honest mistake, and I forgive you for it." However, one
thing she said still lingers in my mind –– "I was just very disappointed at your accusing me without knowing
the truth."

She was right. My biggest error was to make an assumption before I was sure of it. Had I thought twice, I
would have avoided hurting my friend and misleading others. I felt lucky that the incident didn't get
irreversible. I learned a very important lesson from this experience –– Never make an assumption before
knowing the whole truth.