AN UNSEEN PRESSURE

The teenage age is the time where a lot of people face the most pressures in their life. This is because teenagers have their emotions fluttering wild and can easily be persuaded to follow the crowd. This is usually the period in a person's life where they are very vulnerable to external influence because they are still trying to build up their will power. How a person gets through this phase of their life will significantly affect the direction their life takes for the rest of their existence. If a teenager is not thought to not follow the crowd on instinct, but find their inner voice and trust themselves to make decisions they will be responsible for, they will find themselves always seeking opinions and validations for the rest of their lives. Strong will is not something that was built in a person overnight and it is mostly childhood or teenagehood situations that leads to it.

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A strong willed man or woman was once a frightened little boy or girl, and even when they grow up and meet a lot of adults don't know their origins and how they became who they are, you will hear things like “I wasn't always like this” and I think it's just life. For me, although I'm strong willed and not easily persuaded to follow the crowd, I like walking with people. My strong will stems from the family I come from, always thought as a child to believe in myself and take responsibility for my actions. I was also taught as a child to always choose my friends and not allow them to choose me and so I did just that. But then, everything changed during my time in the higher institution where I made friends with three individuals who impacted my life tremendously.

As much as I always tried putting up a brave face, ever since I was a kid I had this stage fright that was really bad. But when I made friends with these three individuals who I would say were one of the very few people to influence my life, I am always grateful to have crossed paths with them when I did. As a Christian, I used to be afraid of people, afraid of making eye contact, and I was more of a go with the flow kind of guy until I was pressured into creating the flow. Walking with these three made me start going for evangelism because it was something they did all the time, this further made me start talking and initiating conversations and although I'm not very good at it, I wouldn't say I am bad at it either thanks to them.

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One of the times I knew I had been influenced was when we organized a crusade with over 3000 people in attendance (and I'm not over exaggerating) what I never knew was that my friends had planned another crusade in another location without my knowledge, and just when the program was about to start I noticed I couldn't find them. Yeah, those guys left without telling me, making sure I handled the crusade which I did for the very first time successfully. This experience built something in me that has grown within me since then. The confidence to speak to people. Today it's easier for me to speak to a multitude, than a single person, but it's all thanks to these my friends 😂 😂.

THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO HIVE LEARNER'S PROMPT FOR WEEK 153 EPISODE 3