Don't Fit In, Stand Out!

                           

Adolescents face multiple challenges and I feel like adults do not understand the different social and school pressures we students have to face on a daily basis. Over the course of time pressures change. Students face a tremendous amount of pressure. A young girl may feel the pressure of her peers "mean girls" to have the "perfect" body because of models they see in magazines. Boys could be pressured by their families, most likely their father, to be tough and do manly things and engage in sports. Other pressures could be to dress or act a certain way around different people, smoke or drink because it is considered cool or any other ignorant excuse as to why doing drugs is beneficial towards anything. If we choose not to we are considered outcast to the certain group we choose not to conform to.

I myself deal with a lot of family pressure to attain goals my parents could not or to become a lawyer or doctor. This is probably expected by most teenagers whose parents are in the same situation. I face other pressures in my personal and school life, but there's something that differentiates me from other students who want to be "cool" or "fit in." I do not allow these pressures to become my decisions. The only person that can make a choice for yourself is you, so it should be a decision you will be proud of not regret because you wanted to do what everyone else was doing. I try to stray away from being negatively pressured, but I am not perfect and sometimes become a victim of this pressuring. If adolescents continue to attempt to fit in to certain groups they will never be able to think for themselves and retain individuality.