As the next year came along I really started let hardships of high school consume me. My original group of friends, I stopped hanging with. My old friends and I never really got in to too much trouble, when I was around them I felt like I was around true friends who were responsible and who cared about me. As the year went on I began hanging with a new set of friends, which wasn’t a good idea. While hanging with this new set is new group of people, I got a rude awakening. This new group of friends were contributing to me being late to class, ditching class, and the first to introduce me to marijuana.

One day during my lunch period I decided not to follow my usually routine. Instead of eating lunch with my original group of friends, I decided to hang out with my new group of friends. Although I knew this new group of friends didn’t have a positive influence on me but I always had so much fun while around them. Well on this particular day, my new friends, wanted me to join them to smoke weed instead of just going to lunch.

“Come on Justin its only weed, it’s not like it will kill you”, one of my friends said.

“But still, I’ve been told that weed is the gate way drug, and I want to be a drug addict when I get older because of this one moment”, I said

“Justin, you really need to stop acting like a little pussy, you act like you’re going to become a junkie after your first time smoking weed”, he said

“Ok, but only this once”, I said

This is the event in which high school turned me into a stereotype. What do I mean by stereotype? I have just become that average black boy that goes smoke weed instead of actually getting an education in school. As I walked back into the school for my next period class, I didn’t realize that I was under the influence. At first it was little stuff, I began to be absent minded and have short term memory. Then the situation became serious when I started to feel like everything was funny, and had no control over my laughter and how loud I was.

As I walked down the hall and into my following class, I unknowingly walked into my sixth period class instead of fifth period, which was my correct class. When I stepped into the class of my class of my sixth period teacher, I can tell she noticed something unusually about me; she gave me a strange judgmental look. When she started talking to me she realized that my eyes were blood shot red, I slurred my words, and I couldn’t focus on talking to her. After a few minutes of talking to her, she knew I was under the influence. Once my sixth period teacher told me I was in the wrong class, I packed up my things and went to the correct one, but I wasn’t in the class long. After only sitting in my fifth period class for fifteen minutes, the security officers for my school, was at my classroom door asking for me to come with them down to my deans’ office. My heart stopped beating and my throat got ridiculously dry. I was completely terrified. Once I stepped into my deans office she closed the door and
She said, “Justin we have been informed that you may be under the influence of marijuana is that true?”
I instantly went into shock, I didn’t know what to say, how to say it, or if I wanted to say anything at all! My mind went completely blank from fear. She made me take a marijuana test and I failed. Once the test results were confirmed, my dean gave me three days of in-school suspension and they called my mom. As soon as they called my mother and told her the situation I was in, I felt so much guilt and shame all I could do was break down and cry. I felt so embarrassed, irresponsible, and immature. I felt like I let the most important person in my life down.
“Justin, what is the problem!?” my mother asked furiously
“I don’t know”, I replied
“We’ll talk when you get home”, she answered

I knew the decision that made was wrong, but if I knew that this was going to be the end result, I never would have done it in the first place. All I knew was I never wanted to go down this path again. I never wanted to my mother through that type of disappointment ever again. Peer pressure plays a huge role in every teen’s life. If being under the influence causes nothing but negative and bad results it’s something that should be left alone. Marijuana is still something that I struggle with today, but the use of it for me is not a addiction but more so a stress reliever.