Lost and Afraid: A Story About the Dangers of Impulsive Decision-Making

As a teenager, did you ever make an impulsive decision that you later regretted as an adult? Parents often over-exaggerate the stereotype of the reckless, rebellious teenager, but the stereotype is founded in the fact that teenagers often make impulsive decisions that could result in physical harm. Many different health risks result from ill-informed behavior common in inexperienced teens, such as automobile accidents, underage drinking, drug use, and suicide; for many teens impulsive behavior leads to perilous situations that often endanger their lives. When we were teenagers my cousin and I made the impulsive decision to go hiking through the woods before sunset; our decision led to a dangerous situation that we were unprepared to face. My story exemplifies the vulnerability of teens due to their inexperience, the dangers of making impulsive decisions, and the important lessons I learned from the experience that others can learn from.

Due to their young age, teens live with little life experience, leaving them vulnerable to ill-informed decision-making. Risks increase for teens because they are in a stage of growth and learning to gain independence from parents as they move into adulthood. At the age of sixteen, my cousin and I made the unwise decision to go hiking through the forest before sunset. We attended high school together, and we always searched for adventures. During the time I was trying to find my place in the world, and I wanted to find my purpose. I had recently received my driver’s license, so I felt free from my parents. When we made the decision to go hiking through the forest right before sunset, I wanted to find excitement in life to find some type of meaning, and I was looking for adventures to get away from the responsibilities of adulthood. With not a care in the world, we heedlessly contemplated how fun it would be to put our feet in the water at the lake on the other side of the trees, and we wished to escape from our piles of schoolwork to find enjoyment in the sunny weather outside. Due to our lack of life experience, we did not realize the danger involved in the decision. Like many teens we thought we were invincible, so we did not stop to think about our decision. Our inexperience with life revealed itself in that we often disregarded advice from our parents because we did not understand the value in their years of knowledge, and we thought we would not make the same mistakes. Our parents had told us to stay inside my brother’s house where we had been working to complete our homework, and they always told us to never go hiking alone. With little remorse or thought, we disregarded their advice, and we decided to hike to the lake behind his house through the forest. At the time we had never traveled to the lake, but my brother Branden had told us that there was a trail through the trees that led to a beautiful lake. Our lack of life experience and knowledge of the many dangers in the world led us to make the decision to enter the forest before sunset, which we would soon regret.

Because of our naivety and feelings of invincibility, we made an impulsive decision which resulted in our endangerment. Happily and carelessly we skipped onto the trail, and we did not bother to consider that the sun would be setting soon. As we walked through the trees, we made jokes and laughed together in our excitement. Completely unaware of any danger, we darted behind trees, and we goofed around in merriment as we enjoyed each other’s company. Suddenly time had run out, and the sun set. Fall had come, so although it was sunny during the day, the cold set in as soon as night fell. Through the trees an icy breeze swept as shadows danced over tree drunks and fallen leaves. We huddled together, and for the first time we wondered if finding the lake was a good idea. Without a jacket we wore nothing but our school polos, so the icy wind and the quick drop in temperature made our teeth chatter. All jokes and merriment subsided as we realized it was too cold to put our feet in the water at the lake, and we decided it would be better to drink hot coco in the warmth of my brother’s apartment. With our new idea we began to turn back, but we realized we had somehow wandered off the trail. We did not know where we were, and by then night had fallen. Any beams of faint light from the moon and stars to guide our way was captured by the canopy of the trees, and the phone I had been using to find our location on google maps had run out of battery. We could not call for help, and we knew our parents would not be back to pick us up until the next morning. Terror and panic engulfed us. With shaking hands we searched in panic for some sort of light through the trees. After hours of wandering, relief flooded our anxious minds and tired bodies when we saw the light of a house up ahead. With new hope we followed the light and finally exited the forest, only to discover we were in a completely different neighborhood, so we wandered through the streets until we entered the main road. I was able to navigate us to the correct neighborhood after another hour or so of walking through mud puddles on the side of the road. When we finally reached my brother’s apartment, we stumbled through the door and collapsed on the ground in relief. We felt exhausted from the hours of walking and the pumping adrenaline through our veins that came with the fear of being lost; we narrowly escaped the many different threats that we faced on our journey due to our hasty decision-making.

My cousin and I learned many lessons because of our impulsive decision, such as critical thinking and planning. During the vulnerable teen years, we made the unwise decision to go hiking alone before sunset. And if we had done proper critical thinking before making our decision, we would have realized a better time to find the lake would be during the morning or afternoon. We could have followed the trail in the light of day and asked Branden to guide us to the lake instead of going alone. If we had considered the dangers of being alone at night, we would not have entered the forest before sunset. One should plan prior to a hiking trip by bringing supplies and a map. If we had done proper planning before our hike, we would have realized it would soon get cold, and my phone’s battery was dying. Instead of irresponsibly entering the forest, we should have prepared by gathering the proper equipment such as jackets, flashlights, a map, a form of communication, food, and water; Going on a hike takes planning and preparation. We should have researched information about the area and what we might need, but we did not consider the presence of danger in our naivety of the world around us. In any decision-making process, critical thinking and planning play a crucial role.

My story of getting lost in the forest at night demonstrates the vulnerability of teens due to their lack of life experience, the risks of spontaneous decisions, and the valuable lessons to be learned from spontaneous decisions. As they gain independence teenagers develop in a stage of learning and growth that often includes a search for meaning, identity, and purpose. My cousin and I always searched for excitement, and we sought adventures to escape the growing responsibilities of adulthood. Our lack of understanding about the world around us and naivety of danger because of our youth often led us to disregard parental instruction; we made a hasty decision in search of fun that put us in peril. With no prior planning we went hiking to find a lake, but we ended up lost and terrified in the forest at night. Instead of assuming nothing bad could ever happen to us, we learned from our experience to prepare for outdoor trips, think through decisions, and consider possible dangerous scenarios. Even though my memory of being lost in the forest is the scariest event to ever occur in my short life, I do not regret anything because I learned important lessons from my experience and grew as a person to become who I am today, and others can learn from my mistakes to make better decisions for themselves to avoid impulsive decisions