I still remember the day I accidentally submitted my roommates assignment of my own for our final economics project. We had been working on topics about market analysis and our laptops were side by side in the library. I was really tired during finals week. I had not slept much. In my state I made a big mistake. I grabbed the USB drive. I submitted Sarahs work under my name. The worst part of the situation, with the economics project was that I did not even realize my mistake until it was too late. I received an A. On the project while Sarah received a B minus on the project. The project that Sarah did was basically the same as the project that I did. I think the professor graded my project first and then the professor thought Sarahs project was much, like my project.

I did not know what had happened until two days later. That was when I found out about the mistake. I found out when Sarah was crying about the grade she got on the project. Sarah said she did not understand why she got a grade on the project. Sarah said she put a lot of effort into the project that she did. I felt really bad about what happened. I was too afraid to tell the truth. If I did, my friend. I would get in trouble for cheating and that would mean losing our scholarships. We really needed those scholarships so I did not say anything. I saw my best friend, Sarah start to think she was not good at her studies and even thought about changing what she was studying because of one bad grade. At the time I was happy about my good grade even though I did not really deserve it. It has been three years since we finished college and Sarah still does not know what really happened. I think about my friend Sarah. How she never found out the truth, about what I did. She did a lot of things after that happened but I think it really hurt her confidence when it mattered most. I have wanted to talk to her about it times especially now that it does not affect her grades or anything but I am really scared of losing her as a friend. Sometimes I think about whether it’s worse to keep this to myself or to tell her what really happened. That good grade on my report card reminds me all the time of what I did and all the good things that have happened to me since then do not feel as good because of it. The academic consequences are not a deal anymore but I still feel bad, about what I did and I wish I could tell her about it without hurting our friendship. I learned that some mistakes create a ripple effect that goes far beyond what you initially imagine, and living with the guilt of how your actions affected someone you care about is its own kind of punishment.