Why I should have gotten a lawyer

What I think about lawyers is really I don’t know that much about them. I have been in trouble with the law twice and each time I should have used a lawyer but did not. The lawyer my cousin used when he was driving down the 95 high on weed and pain killers was great. Even though my cousin hit someone and kept passing out during questioning he only got wreck less driving even though he obviously deserved a DWI. When I had my little run in with the law I did not use a lawyer and got the worst punishment. I was eighteen years old and stole a 10 t- shirt. Well because I was still living with my parents and only had one job I tried to handle it myself. So what ended up happening was I could not pay off my fines and I could not afford to attend work that was to cover the jail time since it cost 150 bucks. I was sent to serve five days in Ventura county jail. I was in shock I thought I could just go back there and work something else out with the judge but nope I had to now serve jail time. I ended up telling my parents because I could not think of a place that I would be for five days. Maybe they would have believed camping, but no I had to tell them just in case something happened to me. It started off bad since my mother insisted on dropping me off and after I was behind the metal door with all my new inmate buddies they made jokes about it saying I wish my mommy could have dropped me off. After being in a holding cell for 32 hours I got moved to my cell block. As soon as we all got in are holding area the next cell erupted with blood splatting against the windows. In the end I should have gotten a lawyer.