I cheated.

Typically, my desserts consist of chocolate in some form or fashion. I am not a girl who satisfies her sweet tooth with straight corn syrup. I usually have standards, but when the earth tilts and shadows begin to grow longer, something weird happens to me, and I begin to crave candy corn.

Therefore, to help control my need for the tri-colored confection, I decided I would limit my candy corn consumption to the month of October.

In the past, I have been diligent in maintaining my self-imposed rule, even throwing out leftovers after Halloween, but for some reason this year, I have already consumed two bags of the candy before even reaching October 1!

I cannot put my finger on the exact cause of my total lack of discipline, but there are some ideas swirling around in my mind as to how I could have been so reckless.

For one, this could be Wal-Mart’s fault. I mean they are the ones that had the candy displayed in bins all over the store.

It would be nearly impossible for anybody with a craving like mine to resist buying a bag or two.

On the other hand, it could have been my job that caused me to break the rules.

You know, I am sitting at a desk writing story after story. This job can wear you out, so to reward myself I come home and eat handfuls of candy corn.

Then again, I could blame my lapse in willpower on becoming an empty nester. I mean, who would not eat a bag of candy when you are in the midst of change?

My excuses for my shortcomings sound plausible, but we all know the real culprit to blame for the two-bag eating spree is none other than me.

Nevertheless, it sure was easy to come up with excuses to explain away what I considered poor behavior.

It seems like this is becoming the norm in our country. When we do something that is not the right thing, whether eating candy corn before a self-imposed date, lying about emails or routinely shaming women with names and innuendos, we try to justify our behavior by confusing others into thinking it is not our fault and then give a plethora of reasons why we acted as we did.

This has to stop. It is time to own up to our missteps and discontinue throwing blame on others.

Facing ourselves in the mirror and owning our own errors is not easy, especially when the taste of feeling faultless is so palatable.

So to begin rectifying my wrong, I plan to refrain from eating any more candy corn this year.

I wish our leaders would follow suit.

Terri Cowart Frazier is a staff writer at The Vicksburg Post. You may reach her at terri.frazier@vicksburgpost.com. Readers are invited to submit their opinions for publication.