Knowing Yourself. Handling Peer Pressure All through a human beings life they are forced to deal with peer pressure. As people grow older, they will be faced with some challenging decisions. Some don’t have a clear right or wrong answer, but other decisions are serious, like whether to cut class, try cigarettes, drink, drugs, or lie to your parents. Peer pressure is when people your own age try to influence you how you act. Peer pressure is all around, whether it is at school, church, a sport team that you are on, or at work.
A peer is someone you interact with through your life. It is someone you learn from and they learn from you. Some peers influence people in a positive way, whether it would be telling them not to do something wrong, lie, or help them with something. But sometimes peers influence people in a negative way. For example one kid might try to get another kid to drink on the senior trip with him, or someone might try to convince you to lie and be mean to another person. There are all different kinds of peer pressure and people will face it Brown 2 most of their lives. It just all depends on how to handle peer pressure and what people can do to avoid it.
“Come on! ALL of us are cutting math. Who wants to go take that quiz? We’re going to take a walk and get lunch instead. Let’s go!” says the kid in school with who you’re dying to be a friend. Do you do what you know is right and go to math class, quiz and all? Or, do you give in and go with them (kids health)?” The first stage of handling peer pressure is to have confidence yourself to say no. To have good self-esteem and confidence in you is the first step to take and understand when dealing with peer pressure. Also people need to know what to say to someone who is influencing them in the wrong way. The first words are the most important words that you can say to someone giving you peer pressure. Peer pressure can be extremely strong and hard to resist. Knowing yourself and having confidence to say what you know is right is the first step in handling peer pressure.
The 2nd stage in handling peer pressure is to know what to do if someone doesn’t listen to what you say to them and doesn’t leave you alone. It can be hard to walk away when someone keeps bothering you about it, but there is always someone that will help you or say, “Come on, I’m with you.” Choosing a friend that believes the same way you do is a good friend to have. To have someone that understand the right things and understands you can help make you not fall from peer pressure. Telling a friend, teacher, or worker, are all different kinds of people that can help you if you are feeling peer pressure.
The 3rd stage of handling peer pressure is by helping stop peer pressure and show people how to ovoid it. When you accomplish the first two stages you should be able to have enough confidence and knowledge to help people deal with peer pressure and show and explain to them how to deal with it. All through life people are forced to deal with peer pressure.