Can You Say No?

Peer pressure is something that every person has grown up learning about. Schools teach students at a young age to “just say no” and to make decisions for themselves. When those students reach college, the amount of peer pressure they are faced with drastically increases. Whether it be something minor such as skipping class for a day or life changing such as trying drugs, students are faced with important decisions to make on a daily basis. Peer pressure obviously comes from our peers and having to live up to their expectations but what we don’t think about is where these expectations are coming from in the first place. Today we live in a world where people are constantly being compared to gorgeous celebrities and stick skinny models that in reality we know an average being could never be anything close to without much needed help. This is where the problem of eating disorders comes into play. College students, with the limited time and budget they have, think that it is impossible to maintain a healthy diet and exercise while at school and would rather starve themselves or throw up any food that they do eat to attain a tiny figure such as those women featured in all the magazines we read. College students, especially women, are being judged by their appearance every second of the day and will do anything to conform to the expectations surrounding them.