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I Feel Alone

Even though I know I'm not.

I mean, I've never been directly pressured to do any of the things I'm against, but unless you're in the same situation I'm in, it's a bit harder to understand.

I guess I'll explain the difference between direct pressure and indirect pressure.

Direct pressure is when your peers are pushing you to do something you don't really want to do. For example:

Peer: "Billy, hey man, you've gotta try this (insert drug here)!"

Billy: "Um, no thanks, bro. I'm good."

Peer: "C'mon, dude! A little bit isn't going to hurt."

Now, I'm not exactly sure what type of person Billy is, but hopefully he'll say 'no' and walk away. However, he could always give in to his peer and say "Well, yeah, I guess you're right..." and sneak off to behind the gym and join his friends in whatever they're doing.

Okay, on to indirect pressure.

Indirect pressure is when your peers aren't actually suggesting that you should do the things they're doing, but rather when you're surrounded by it.

This is basically the situation I am in.

I walk down the hallways to class, overcome by the smell of weed and hearing people talk about how much they smoked last weekend, how much they have left, and when they're going to get some more.

It gets a bit annoying, sometimes. I guess they really don't have anything better to talk about.

Or maybe they do, but their friends would shun them for wanting to talk about something other than weed or what they did with a certain girl or boy last weekend, etc., etc.

I suppose I should be grateful that my best friend is so open-minded, but sometimes it hurts only having one person to speak my mind to.

Whatever.