The Writers Voice
The World's
Favourite Literary Website
The Bottom Line - "Everyone Else Does It"
by
Catherine E. Smithwick
What is the greatest insult to our meager intelligence? Telling us there is no
such thing as the Tooth Fairy? No. Telling us Santa Clause still exists? No. The
greatest insult is this: Peer pressure.
Now, before I offend anybody, I don't mean that only stupid people fall victim
to peer pressure. This is because I don't believe in peer pressure at all. If a
person is dumb enough to fall for the "You're not cool unless you do it, too"
line, that individual deserves whatever psychological tragedy befalls them.
The first stop on my list is drugs. Come on. That's possibly the biggest peer
pressure block existing. We've been taught to "Just Say NO!" all our lives
(thank YOU Mrs. Regan). Drugs are bad for our system,
literally. Black lungs, pale skin, hair loss, internal problems. Higher
authority has been shoving that
medical mumbo jumbo down our throats since we were three. Who in their right
mind would even think of drugs without recalling that and throwing up?
Next is eating disorders. I know a lot of girls have problems with food and
their bodies. It's part of being a teenager, correct? What makes me mad, though,
is the fact that girls feel they have to be the skinniest and prettiest or no
one will like them. What's on the inside matters, but if it's compacted into two
cine meters, people will be too grossed out to talk to you.
Finally is sex. If you have indeed been fooled by that prior line, you need to
be slapped. If everybody were having sex, there would be no birth control items
left in the world. There would be random babies (or not) running around.
Peer pressure is stupid no matter how you put it. It's also an easy way out of
trouble when you do something wrong. All you have to do is look at your parents,
start to cry a bit, and sob out, "It...wah...was
p-p-peer pressure", followed by a wail of pain and shame. Parents seem to buy
this more and more lately,
which is a shame, because my mom isn't one of those.
If I did it, I own up to it, because she finds out one way or another. If I
broke a cup in the kitchen
because I was riding around on the rolling chair, I have to tell her that. I
can't say my peers made me do
it, because I'll get grounded even more than before.
So as my sign off, I say this: Quit whining! If you do something, tell the
truth- you knew it was bad when you were thinking about it!
~There's Too Much Disinfectant In My Soup~
Critique this work
Click on the book to leave a comment about this work
