The two sides of peer pressure

Peer pressure is something inevitable; some of us have had the taste of it while growing up. Some were derailed, but we're able to get back on the right path and make it work for their good, while others lose themselves along the way, and it leads to wherever they are today and whoever they have become.

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Peer pressure has its positive effects and likewise its negative effects on individuals. How we make use of the pressure is what determines whether it's a good one or a bad one.

But at the same time, do we know that this peer pressure is necessary at times to give one a wake-up call? Someone might be wondering how. Yes, you might not see anything bad in how you live your life until you see forces that push you out of your shell.

Some were able to know who they were through peer pressure; this pressure pushed them to define their lives and set rules on how they wanted to live their lives.

I've seen scenarios where peer pressure leads one astray and, likewise, serves as a correctional factor for a better future. Taking myself as an example, while I was in high school, what we call secondary school here in Nigeria, When I got to SS1, being an introvert didn't work well with me.

Everyone is always getting on my nerves just because I'm quiet, and I don't like it. I always see girls that people respect and walk with, and they fall into two categories. It's either the big girls who spend lavishly or the intelligent girls.

I looked at the two categories and also my background and the family I'm coming from. My parents are averagely rich; at least they can provide for all of my needs, but my parents will never allow me to spend lavishly. There must be a detailed explanation of everything I need money for, and lying to get money is definitely not an option in my family.

Then I decided to join the category of intelligent girls. I studied harder and pushed myself out of my comfort zone. I always perform above average, and that earned me respect. I didn't let the pressure direct me towards the path of the big girls who spent money, and no one knew how they came about it. I made good use of the pressure of being harassed to earn myself the respect I deserved.

And I've seen a girl in my class at that time whose peer pressure led her astray. This particular girl loves the lifestyles of the so-called big girls in the other category, and she wanted to be like them.

She told her parents different lies to collect money from them to spend at school, and she successfully joined the big girls, who, unknown to her, had a wayward lifestyle. To keep being their friends, she has to keep going out with them and providing money for them to spend.

It got to a point where her parents couldn't give her money any longer because she asked too frequently. But yet, she had to keep up her game; she joined the big girls in their wayward lifestyle. Just because it was working well for the other girls doesn't mean it would work well for her too.

She got pregnant in the middle of it, and she had to leave school when we got to the second term of Ss2. Peer pressure led her astray and changed the story of her life. Some don't get to this point before retracing their steps, but it didn't go well with her.

My baby brother once tried to join some of his friends in shaving his eyebrows, and my parents also noticed the changes in his dressing. He was scolded and punished for involving himself in such an act, and he said that was how his classmates shaved their eyebrows.

The beating and advice given to him quickly retraced his steps, and he was corrected back to the right path expected of him for his age. So I can say peer pressure has both negative and positive effects on individuals.

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Thanks for your time, and your comments will be appreciated.

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