Life Mistakes That Altered Life - Essay Example

 Over time, my naivety led me to yield to such pressure and I began indulging in unacceptable social behavior. This paper will describe this significant life mistake that I made years back.

I remember clearly that turning 12 was an exciting event. When I was ten years old, my mother told me about the challenges teenager faced during adolescence. She had tried to guide me and prepare me for the most significant transition from childhood to adolescence. Despite her efforts to prepare me, adolescence came sooner than I thought and brought about multiple changes in my life. Many of my friends had the conviction that the adolescent stage presented an opportunity for them to explore different things that adults did (Pickhardt, 2011).

Since I was confused and faced an identity crisis as I grew older in my teenage years, I faced a constant temptation to please my friends. Therefore, I tried out all the things they suggested. Initially, I did not see any harm in joining my friends in their ventures as the activities they indulged in were exciting. However, with time, my friends began to adopt habits that were considered socially wrong. For example, they encouraged me to try out smoking when I was only fourteen (p. 23). I was against smoking because I knew its numerous side effects, but, the pressure from my friends to prove myself an adult using the puff was overwhelming, so I eventually gave in.

Smoking was not the worst thing that I did as a result of yielding to peer pressure. I became overly rebellious and would often sneak out at night to go to clubs and theatres. This continued for some time despite the warnings from my parents and teachers who had noticed that I had changed. Although they tried to counsel me, I was unwilling to accept counsel at that time. However, on one fateful night, when my friends and I were out clubbing, the security officers realized that we were underage. This led to our arrest because we could not prove that we were over eighteen. It was terrible spending the night in a cell for the first time and not knowing the explanation I would give to my parents (p. 56).

It was that night when I realized that life was personal and that I had to make efforts of making personal decisions. Since the cell was lonely and cold, I spent the entire night meditating. I realized that I had brought disaster upon myself. Yielding to peer pressure, I had compromised my moral principles, made me disrespectful to my parents, and affected my grades in school. After such a self-reflection, I realized that I needed to change. The following morning, I conducted my parents and informed them of the mess I had involved myself in.  Although I had wronged them in many ways, they did not give up on me, but promptly came to my rescue. In the months that followed, they helped me reform into a self-confident young person with the ability to make the right decision (p. 160).

Conclusion

Although this is something that happened in the past, I remember everything vividly. It was the one mistake that led to multiple other mistakes and ruined the early years of my adolescence. Like many teenagers, I faced a critical identity crisis, which compelled me to yield to peer pressure. That was the worst mistake I made because I eventually became a puppet of my friends and had to do everything they suggested. However, the night we were arrested offered me an opportunity to meditate on the kind of life I wanted for myself. Since that day, I have had the conviction that I want to be an outstanding individual who can change the world positively. Notably, the help of my parents helped me get back on the right track.