Plagiarism

I was seven or eight years old. Third grade? Something like that. My class was making a little magazine. It was called the "Just Say No Journal" and everybody got to make something for it - mostly cartoons and stuff like that - all of it united by the theme: drugs are bad.

In my class I was known as a somewhat talented artist, as far as little kids go. I could draw and design posters and stuff. I was in the choir and I played the piano. For that reason, and the fact that I was the only third grader reading Mad Magazine, everybody loved my plagiarized cartoon. It took up the whole back cover. Kids and teachers complimented me on it, and I was really, really humble with my "thanks."

I pretty much just traced the cartoon straight out of Mad. I'm not sure why I did it. I'd never really been one to pass off other people's stuff as my own. I had this one friend who was super smart, and I think he knew, but he never said anything. I felt guilty as hell, I never confessed, and I never got caught.