The image of peer pressure had always been painted as someone telling you to drink at a party, or saying you weren’t cool if you didn’t smoke. As I made my way into high school, I never felt like I experienced any negative type of peer pressure, just the positive kind. But as I got older and decided to spend more time thinking about what is important to me, I realized this was not as positive as I thought.

Although we all know this, who you choose to surround yourself with tremendously changes your general outlook on life and what you choose to prioritize. Being in the highly competitive culture of MHS has caused a common inner conflict throughout my life since elementary school—am I doing enough? 

I enjoy challenging myself, but the constant talk of SAT prep years before the actual test and the myriad of summer internships my friends were looking into always overwhelmed me more than it influenced me to push myself. I made so many choices throughout my years of schooling that I did not even necessarily care about—I just wanted to look smart and fit in. 

Finally as a junior, as obvious this may sound, I realized to just do what I want to do. Why should I take a certain class that I know I’ll hate just because other people are? Why push myself to exhaustion with a class I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle “because so-and-so did.” Just because I didn’t take 6 AP classes junior year does not take away from my accomplishments and intelligence. Education is not one-size-fits-all, and I am starting to finally understand that.