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Under pressure
Originally appeared online in the teen column: UpFront - September 7, 2016
In the cheesy videos they made us watch during my high school health class, the characterizations of peer pressure made it seem so obvious. A “good kid” would find him- or herself around “bad kids,” who would be pushing alcohol or drugs. The message was, “Beware: This is what peer pressure looks like.”
But often, peer pressure doesn’t even feel like pressure. We think we’re choosing to do something because we really want to do it, not because we’re responding to a pull to be accepted.

October 31, 2016 issue
View Issue-
Letters
Alice Lee Perez, Pat Spencer
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When you want something that isn't yours
Nancy Mullen
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Angels to the rescue
Margaret Jane Seymour
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One Ego, one harmonious government
David C. Kennedy
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Love is always right
Steve Cole
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Blessed by prayer
Ute Keller
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Under pressure
Jenny Sawyer
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Freed from social anxiety
Lisa Andrews
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‘No ugliness in my expression’
Pete Maurer
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Severe ankle injury healed
Norm Bleichman
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Kitten healed of congenital malformation
Sandra Silvernail
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'Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the material senses ...'
Photograph by Allan Rowe
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Seeing through the claim of pain
Deborah Huebsch