When I was very little (1st grade, I think) I wrote a little fable about how baby deers get their white spots. Something to do with sunlight coming through the forest canopy. My teacher raved up and down about this little story and showed it to the principal and the librarians. One of the librarians submitted it to a little children's literary journal.

The only problem was that I had plagiarized it. I stole it. It's true.

So I went back to the librarian and told her I didn't want my story in the journal. I admitted to what I had done and apologized. To everyone. Especially to my mom. Naturally.

But!

I've never plagiarized since then! Never ever (actually I did plagiarize a bit of the internet for a report on Robert Frost in high school because I was a lazy jerk and mad at society at large - again, I had to admit what I did and felt not-so-good about it). I didn't mean nothin' by it at the time but it was a lousy feeling to have to admit to what I had done.