This writing prompt reminds me of one of my first papers I wrote in English class in college, learning from a mistake. I wrote about a decision I made as a 13- or 14-year-old teenager.

I played little league baseball for several years before this day, and I enjoyed it. I played 2nd base. This particular season I was on a different team with different neighborhood teens as my teammates. I still enjoyed playing in spite of the new faces.

On this day, I was hanging out with a friend down the street, planning to skip the game that day. We were just talking, when suddenly my new teammates appeared in his back yard dressed in their uniforms.

“Hey, Mike, are you coming to the game today?”

I said, “no.”

The reply surprised me, “but you have the highest batting average on the team. We need you.”

I had no idea. My heart smiled when I learned I had the highest batting average on the team, and I really wanted to run home and put my uniform on and join them, but I let peer pressure intervene. I stuck to my guns and said, “no, I can’t come today.” It was a little decision, but years later I saw it as a turning point. Instead of joining a new group of friends that wanted me to help win baseball games, I chose to hang out with a different, older friend, one that eventually led to a different crowd altogether. I never played baseball after that.

I realized while writing the paper in college that I had let peer pressure influence me in negative ways. I really wanted to keep playing baseball, but I let my other friend’s wry smile lead me to skipping it.

I decided early in my college life to not let this happen again. If I really wanted to study something different, go places I wanted to go to, I would listen to my inner voice–the one that really wanted to play baseball that day.

Since then, I have earned a master’s degree in literature, travelled and lived on the other side of the world, and have taken up painting oil on canvas–not because of peer pressure, but because I really wanted to do it. I am happy about these decisions.