Surround yourself with good people not bad

Written by Yaseen, Grade 10                                                                                      Brampton, ON

Peer pressure can be both positive and negative. Looking at the experiences of the older kids, they have experiences with peer pressure at both the age they are at now and at a young age as well.

Image Source: https://kidshelpline.com.au/parents/issues/helping-kids-and-teens-deal-peer-pressure

I have had both positive and negative effects of peer pressure. I'm 14 years old and I'm going to grade 10 now, but in grade 9 I had an experience of positive peer pressure. In grade 9, I had the opportunity of being on a wrestling team. When I told some of my friends about it, they laughed in my face and said stuff like you are fat and you will get destroyed, and to be honest with you that really discourages me. Then I went to a different set of friends and told them about this wrestling team and they said go for it. They said yes you're a little chubby but if you do this wrestling team you will become more fit and strong and you can lose all this weight. They really encouraged me so I lost weight, placed 7th in all of Peel for my weight class and I'm not chubby anymore, I’m buff apparently! 

Sadly though I had experiences with negative peer pressure as well. When I was in grade 6 I moved to Brampton. I was new and it was difficult for me to make friends and I guess people saw that and took advantage of me because of it. They would make me do bad things like shout dirty names in class and make me fight their battles for them. Sooner or later I realized what they were doing, so I surrounded myself with a new group of people who are my best friends still to this day. They really changed my life and they're also the friends who encouraged me to join this wrestling group. For people who have or haven’t experienced peer pressure, always remember to surround yourself with a good group of people and if you feel like you're being mistreated then stop being friends with them.

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