Maria Sisci
Positive Peer Pressure
The right friends can make a world of difference
Try a cigarette, man.”“But … isn’t it bad for you?”
“Come on, all the cool kids are doing it!”
“Maybe I’ll just try one …”
We all give in to peer pressure at times, because we want to fit in or be liked. It’s hard being a teenager with no friends, and so we often leave our better judgment behind when a sticky situation arises.
Many adults think teens encounter peer pressure all the time, and this may be true, but it’s not always under negative circumstances.When we were small, our parents chose our friends for us. They knew who the “best” friends for us would be. But as we grew older, we started making our own friends, and sometimes, I’ll admit, I’ve not been as wise as my parents.
Preparing for the PSATs
Can one test really make such a big difference?
Acquittal. Mirth. Jocular. Just the sight of these words sends shivers down my spine. But, in the run up to my PSATs, I was forced to spend countless nights memorizing them.
Originally, I had planned to study these words during the summer, and I bought a thick stack of SAT preparation books. At first, I felt motivated and confident burying my head in them, but this momentum was somewhat lost after about a week.
Then, two weeks before the PSATs, I decided to take my books out again. It was only then that I realized I had been focusing so much on the vocabulary that I hadn’t even read the other half of the book. As I flipped through the grammar section, my eyes started to widen. Then opening to reading comprehension, my jaw dropped. A glance at the math section brought a sigh of relief, but when I got to the writing section, I shut the book in horror.
