TEENAGE PEER PRESSURE
As you enter high school, this is inevitable. It even began before high school for some of you. It's all around you when you're young. It's a part of growing up, actually, and impossible to avoid. It's a rite of passage. Trust me, you WILL experience it.
But it doesn't have to be all negative, there is such a thing as positive peer pressure, too. So don't associate those 2 words as always having a negative connotation, because it certainly isn't true.
It also can happen at any age in your life. Even in my 30's, I experience it almost everyday. People judge, or you try to fit in the best way you can. Some of it is good, while some of it is bad.
Let's talk about some of the good and bad effects in high school. There are many, this is just scratching the surface. Maybe you can relate to some of them. Maybe you've experienced these same things.
1. Perhaps all your close friends are in choir and it makes you jealous. Maybe you have a good voice, too. You just need to show it off. Your friends will mostly likely, eventually persuade you to take choir the next term. Everything will turn out great! Now that's pressure that's positive!
2. Maybe all your friends one day are going hiking up the mountain and you don't want to go because you're tired. Well, low and behold I'm sure it won't take much haggling to convince you to go hiking. It's great exercise and the scenery is breathtaking.
3. Maybe you're running a race and you're almost at the finish and all your friends and family are lined up the sidelines. Is that type of pressure coming off the sidelines going to make you strive to run even harder towards the finish? Absolutely YES!
1. You're hanging out with your friends one day and one of them pulls out a pack of cigarettes and everyone lights one up besides you. Perhaps the first few times you manage to stay clear of them. Unfortunately, that won't last forever. The pressure to smoke will be too much and you'll try it.
Realistically though, I only know a handful of people who have never smoked a single time in their life. Imagine if you did indeed stay clear those first few times with your friends, you still have to go the rest of the year, and the following couple of years until you graduate. That plus every summer in between. Then the dorms, then frat houses and the party lifestyle. Then adulthood and your first apartment. It's just unfathomable to never even try it. You're lucky if you haven't.
2. Let's say a bunch of older, bad boys who you think are cool ask to borrow your car after school. Are you just going to flat-out deny them? Yes, you could if you want to be uncool. Or, you can make the wrong choice and borrow them your car to be cool. This happened to me. The pressure was too much because I thought they were cooler than me, so I did stupid things so they'd like me more.
3. Let's say it's Friday night and everyone wants to get together, but no one knows where to go. But it just so happens your parents are out of town until Sunday. You think you're going to get convinced to have a party even though you know you shouldn't? Yup! You got it! It's happened to me a couple times. It can turn out fine, or it can turn out ugly, it's all a gamble.
I can remember dealing with peer pressure everyday of my life. Yes, there was some good, and some bad. It even came down to what food I ate sometimes, or what drink I ordered at a restaurant. Everybody is always judging others. It's just the sad reality of it all.
It goes the other way, too, as you may be the one guilty. Perhaps you are persuading someone to read the same book you're reading, or buy the same color outfit at the store. You see, it's not always bad. Simply put, it's just life.
