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The courtroom is silent. The benches are empty. There is only you, sitting the trial seat, waiting for the judge to speak. The verdict: you decide!

Everyone has done something bad in their lives. That's a fact that needs no reinforcement. We may not have meant to or wanted to at the time, but circumstances lead us to a point where we do something we regret. It may have been cheating on a test, or stealing something we really wanted, or even something as serious as driving when you've had one too many beers. The proper authorities will naturally take a stand and punish you most of the time. But what about the other times? What about the times that you may not be caught after a hit and run? What if you get straight A's thanks to a friend's cheat sheets? What if a store doesn't notice its missing merchandise? For the times where you aren't caught, your own personal Jimminy Cricket steps in.

The cricket in Pinocchio was a metaphor for a person's inner need to justify their behavior and actions. Sometimes it seems troublesome, but really, what would we do without the ability to tell ourselves what we did was right or wrong? Case in point, the examples above. How many of us would turn ourselves in to the test proctor or the police in such a situation? Regardless of whether you take responsibility and confess, you'll always have your conscience pushing the decision on you. A good conscience helps keep the world a better place, without too many of the situations that are all too tragic in the modern society. If you would turn yourself in in every situation, you've got a spectacular conscience. Unfortunately, not everyone has the will power to follow their conscience.

We see cases of people ignoring consciences everywhere. People stealing cars, doing drugs, and even killing other people. Things that most everyone- including the culprits themselves- think are horrible. So why do we allow ourselves to do them? Because we don't acknowledge our consciences. We can rationalize almost anything if we ignore the reasons not to do things; too many people push away their conscience and embrace the bad reasons for doing things. In the real world you can't ignore a judge, but anyone can ignore their conscience.

Not everything is so black and white. There are shades of gray. Most people do something destructive or harmful for a reason. Maybe someone stole a car to chase after a criminal. Maybe someone murdered a murderer. There is no way that society can fairly judge people in these cases, but there's always a judge that will give a satisfying answer: a person's conscience. People will continue to follow the paths shown to them by their consciences, or ignore their consciences altogether. After all, an individual's conscience is their own, personal, judge.

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