Peer Pressure

Of course I have experienced peer pressure in my lifetime, I just have never been the type of person to succumb to it. Throughout my years in school I was mostly a loner so friends did not have much of an influence on my decisions. As I grew older my circle of friends just got smaller and mostly consists of family. Peer pressure has not influenced me in either a good or bad way. I tend to just do my own thing and make my own decisions that way I have no one to blame but myself. I will say I have seen plenty of examples of peer pressure effecting people I know in a bad way. I have watched a people I care about hang out with the wrong crowd and go along with whatever their so called friends are doing. By doing this a few of them have ended up in prison, just because they wanted to be just like the people they were around. One received 4 years for robbery for letting his peers talk him into driving the get a way car. One received life for murder and kidnapping for letting peer pressure talk him out of giving up the actual person who committed the crime. Another also received life in prison for murder, he let the peer pressure of a gang persuade him to think it was ok to shoot someone if you felt they disrespected you. I have watched while my step son developed a drug addiction which all started by trying to impress a girl that wasn\'t even worth impressing. He struggled for years to overcome his addiction first to the illegal drugs, then to the methadone that was intended to help. With the positive peer pressure from family he was finally able to overcome his addictions. Of course it is still a daily struggle, and as we all knew would happen, the girl is no longer in the picture. I try my best to be a positive influence in his life so he does not go down that path again. As far as the steps I would take to avoid peer pressure, I will keep doing what has worked for me in the past, make my own decisions. I will however, take steps to insure that my...