Resisting Negative Peer Pressure

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"Be yourself, not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be." -- Hussein Nishah

'Oh look, those are the new jeans everyone are buying, hey do you want to get high, smoke this.' Have you ever been in a situation like this, where you just purchased an item or said yes to something that you feel regretful for just to fit in with other people? If you have then you have gone through the social anxieties of peer pressure.

Many times in a teenager's life there are choices that have to be made. Many of the choices us teenagers make are influenced by peer pressure. Sure, I had obsession with many trends growing up, but later on in life I heard a quote that really aimed at my thoughts, the quote was "The shoe doesn't make the man, the man makes the shoe."

After hearing the quote I thought about what I did in my life to fit in, and realized that what a person wears, buys, or listens to, doesn't create who a person is. Peer pressure throws out the thought of being who you want to be; peer pressure is more reminiscent of "be like everybody else."

County High School is a perfect example of how teenager's deal with peer pressure. Being at High School for approximately a year, I have noticed all the fads, trends, and crazes High goes through. A massive issue about peer pressure is teen smoking and sex. I am highly agreeable that social pressures lead people to buy cigarettes and drugs, if it was up to the person I think drugs wouldn't even be in their mind. From my own experiences I know numerous people who did drugs just to be accepted into a group.

Sex is also a major contribution to the many issues that make up peer pressure. Sex to me is the one thing most people regret they did in their lives because 10 minutes of pleasure just because everyone else does it will never match up to the pain somebody may have to go through a lifetime because of a disease caused by sex. Peer pressure is just not worth having a disease the rest of your life, having to swallow 25 pills everyday for the rest of your life.

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