Take One.

How did you get caught? (Or not caught, as the case may be.)

They got me like a dolphin stuck in a tuna fishing net, just like they get me every single time. No matter how cynical, how sarcastic, how misanthropic I think I am, I still have deep implicit faith in the humanity I am surrounded by. A tendency to trust unreservedly, compounded by my complete inability to lie and excuse myself convincingly means that, if you know me well enough, you can persuade me to do just about anything within my morals. Just look at my class schedule; this particular characteristic explains how half my school's math department talked me into taking AP Calculus, and why I am now co-captain of the math team. It explains why, when my mom candidly tells me that something I'm wearing looks stupid, I invariably go and change (even though I happen to like that color combination, thank you very much), and that when someone tells me about an absolutely atrocious book or band they think I would like, I almost always go out and grab a copy or a CD.
If there is no important decision to make or anything of value at stake, all someone has to do is suggest once or twice that I do something. If, after my first refusal or two they keep going, I fold like a bad poker hand. As a dolphin, I don't just fail to avoid the net. Even supposing that I had enough fishy comprehension to realize what the net was, I would still swim straight towards it and hope that the tuna would be tastier this time around. How did I get caught? I kept trusting the people in my life who push me away from things I would tend to do if left on my own and towards things that they personally prefer.
If I stopped listening to persuasion, I would have more time for things I know I love to do. I would be able to fold paper airplanes all morning and reread novels for the dozenth time well into the afternoon. I would be taking Latin IV instead of pushing buttons on a TI-83 for forty five minutes every day while wearing something completely ridiculous, probably involving two different kinds of plaid, sunglasses, and obnoxious neons. I know how easy it would be for me to stop trying to please other people and avoid the net. That doesn't mean I want to.
My trust in humanity is fundamentally unprovable, but the people in my life constantly reassure me that my faith is not misplaced. They push me, and a little pressure is often the best thing a person can give me. Now I know that I like the camaraderie I only find when talking about deferential functions to a team of people who love competition as much as I do. Incidentally, my mom was right, and the white shirt really did look better. As for my music, every single one of my favorite bands has been introduced to me by insistent friends. If this makes me overly persuadable, then so be it, because I like practice an open-eyed brand of compliance that has gotten me into many awkward situations but even more new realities that I would not have seen otherwise. Yes, I have been caught, and will continue to let myself be caught; unlike that poorly used dolphin, I can always escape from the net when I need to.