Peer Pressure and learning to stick to your lane

I was watching a Kevin Hart stand-up special the other day. He was talking about how he used to hang out with his rich friends who made him do ‘rich people’ stuff. He did so for a while until he realised he didn’t make as much money as they did to afford such, so he had to find excuses to avoid doing those rich people stuff with those rich friends. This made me realise that  this happens a lot in campuses all the time.

You come from an impoverished village. Your father is the resident herdsman and your mother brews traditional liquor. They sell the family cow or chickens, gather the little they can to send you off to college and you go promising to make them proud and get them out of poverty. You promise to focus on your studies and to not let yourself get distracted by girls or boys.

And then you get into campus and you meet people from different backgrounds. You meet chaps that come from poor families like yourself. You meet people who come from middle class families. And then you meet children from super rich families  – the ones who are sent weekly allowances running into their tens of thousands.

One thing turns into another and you start hanging out with these kinds of people. The ones whose parents are politicians, businessmen, lawyers, doctors or wheeler-dealers. And because you want to fit in, you start spending money you do not have and, before you know it, you’re knee-deep in debt.

Take this to the bank; the worst thing about getting into campus and making new friends is the peer pressure that comes with it. You’ll meet friends who want to drink every day, but the sad thing is, they have the money and you don’t. You’ll meet friends who want to go camping every weekend. They have the money but you don’t.

You’ll meet friends who want to go on road trips and cross-campus events and check out the newest clubs in the city. Again, they have the money and you don’t. And you can’t ask for it from your peasant parents back home because they don’t have it. Those kids allowances are probably triple their yearly earnings.

I’m going to tell you this; do what Kevin Hart did, stop hanging out with these kinds of people. Never feel the pressure to fit in. Eat at the school mess if that’s what you can afford; stay in your room during the weekends and read a book if you can’t afford a beer; go to class in sandals if you do not have money for the latest sneakers.

Bottom line is, don’t do what your campus friends are doing, do what you’re comfortable with. Stay in your lane!