I was a Third Grade Forger

O. K. I am 38 years old, I did this in the third grade, and I never told my mother the full story.

One of the problems I’ve had was that I always got good grades in with little effort. I am a good test taker, but I hated homework. Change that “hated homework” to “was lazy” and didn’t feel like doing homework.

It was a revelation to realize that my mother’s handwriting was so bad that I could duplicate it. I could quickly dash off a note, sign it and....woohoo...there was nothing I had to do.

And, it worked, for a while at least.

After one note too many, I was caught. My teacher made me confess. She sent me to the principal’s office to call my mother.

She was so shocked and she made a mistake. She sent me to the office alone. Big mistake, I had one more trick.

It didn’t come right away. I had to wait to see the nun who was the principal. There I formulated my plan, I would confess only as much as I needed.

The note shoved deep in my back pocket. Through tears, I confessed that I was sent to the office for not doing my homework. We called my mom and I confessed again. I think I was grounded until I started doing my homework regularly again.

After I returned to the classroom, my teacher asked if I told about the homework. “I did.” She asked then, “Did you tell her about the note, too?”

Not a momentary pause, “Yes.”

Sometimes it is fun to get away with something, isn’t it?

Just don’t tell my mother.