When I was in seventh grade, coming into Junior High. Looking back life seemed so perfect in grade school, but that all changed sooner than I could have imagined. Going into Junior High I had no clue about drugs, alcohol or sex. Neither did my friends, we were straight A students and had never been in any sort of trouble. I learned the pressures that I never thought possible my 7th grade year, I remember clearly the first time I was pressured. It was about the first week of school and I had made a few new friends and this one girl was very popular, we started talking and she told me she had an 18 year old boyfriend, I was stunned. I had no clue what to say, I mean I had never even had a boyfriend. She kept talking about her at home life, how she snuck out almost every night. She then told me about crank, I was confused. I didn’t know what it was and she just laughed at me when I told her and that felt embarrassing. Then on, her being popular made me want to be like her. I wanted to feel what she did. I wanted to know what its like. I kept hanging out with this girl every day, I learned so much I never knew about. One day she came to school and she had some pills, and told me to take two. I did, and the next day at school I got pulled into the office. Someone had found out and told, and we were suspended for 3 weeks.
Then at that point it felt so good to get in trouble, I loved this new lifestyle. I didn’t care what other people thought. Later that month I got one of my good friends in the game to, I had brought marijuana to her house and we both did it for the first time, and loved it, I’m not going to lie. The whole rest of our seventh grade year was all about weed. I would go to my friend’s house almost every night with whatever I could get. But it all got bad when I met a new friend, this friend happened to be 18. I really felt like I was powerful when I was around him, like nothing else in the world mattered. We took our relationship higher, too high for me. One night I had been drinking with him and things just got carried away, we ended up having sex. The next day I was confused, I didn’t know what to do, things just went to far. So I decided to call him and he told me he loved me. The next day he ran away with the girlfriend I never knew about. I was depressed I didn’t know how to handle the pain and that’s when I started tripping on cough & cold medicine. I got hooked, and I lived this lifestyle for a few months. I then met a group of people in a local gang, they seemed so cool and they were actually nice to me, out of that group I had made a best friend, she seemed so cool until she got pregnant, she didn’t even know who the father was. But I should have known better, and by eighth grade I had already been to court repeated times for stealing, battery, and underage drinking. My life by then had been so bad, I was then thinking about suicide, and my mom noticed. I got so depressed I went to school and came home and locked myself in a room for hours, or days and I would not eat. I was also going threw withdraw it was horrible as I remember.
Later that week I was in a mental hospital. I was suicidal and my health was horrible, my liver was destroyed, and I had extreme stomach problems. I had never thought my life would change so much so fast, but it did. Two years later I’m still coping with problems with my health, and my life. I cant even get a drivers license. I failed eighth grade, I had to take it over and in the end I had no friends, I had to start over completely. Just one person can pressure you and it could change your life. Please try to avoid peer pressure, it is extremely hard to but its not worth the pain you will be left with later. It does not matter if someone seems cool for doing something wrong. Later on they wont be so cool. Live your life how you would, Not anyone else. I would never in my life want someone to go through what I did in junior high. I know other people have been through much harder situations but this was very hard for me and I just want to reach out to teens going into junior high/ high school. I never want anyone to go through this. Be aware, and please make healthy decisions.