Dealing with Peer Pressure? Peer pressure starts becoming a real problem in middle school. Why? Because this is when kids really start caring about what other kids think of them. In elementary school, kids tend to go along with their parents and teachers. Middle school? Totally different! You want to be cool, right? You want to fit in and be accepted. And this is where peer pressure can take you down a positive path (“Don’t take it! It’s not worth the risk!”) or a negative path (“Take it! No one’s looking!”) Yeah, this might sound preachy and obvious, but we’re not taking any chances.

By high school it can be even worse. Listen, those of us writing this information are adults, but we USED to be kids! And we remember what it felt like. We all want to be liked. We all want to fit in and be accepted. But no amount of "cool" is worth the trouble you can get into when your so-called "friends" say:

"Wanna get high?"
"You just have to be the look-out… Come on!"
"Everyone else is doing it…"
"One time! Like that’s a big deal!"

You get the idea. They’ll have every justification in the world to bring you down to their level. That is not a friend! Will they be there when you’re expelled from school? Sent to juvenile detention? No. They’ll be long gone.

It’s easy for us to say, WALK AWAY. But that’s what you have to do. Walk. Away. It’s YOUR life. What you do, and what you DON’T do, have serious consequences. Be in control of yourself. Do not hand control of your life over to some idiot who only cares about swiping a carton of cigarettes or cutting class to get high. WALK AWAY!