Independence is more important than you can imagine. Sometimes it may even be vital. The thing is, do we really know what it means?? Okay, you can look it up in the dictionary. But still, you won't believe how much of a disaster things will turn out if you don't understand and have independence. The best example I can think of is homework. Dog ate it? Nice excuse. Younger sibling doodled on it? Keep it safe. Parent throw it away? Next time tell them it's your homework. There's basically no excuse for lack of independence. And we all learned that the hard way, but sometimes the first time you learn it, you're too late. Like if you're involed in an accident or something, there must be a reason. Maybe you got drunk because someone told you to. Well that's lack of independence. You can take advice from others, but you have to think it over first and apply your own common sense to see if the advice is neccesary. It's not like, "Do you want to steal something?" "Okay..." Those situations can get you into BIG trouble-- and it may even put your life in danger! Lack of independence guarantees you at least one thing: YOU'RE GONNA PAY!!! Then if you do just the opposite (independence), you can very likely look forward to one or more good thing. Independence can't be called a deed, because sometimes it can save your own life, as well as others'. All you need to do to keep being independent is to remember just one thing: you can never realize what horrors await you if you ignore being independent! We'll need to stop here, because I don't think I can describe any other horrible things that might happen if you do not do what this article advises. So run along now and do anything you like as long as you are independent!!