Teens Meet Outreach

Life is a journey full of choices. A choice is a single decision taken out of various alternatives. Everyday, life presents to us alternatives, alternatives we have to choose from. We make choices at each point and position we find ourselves, and they are dependent on certain conditions.

We are not always conscious of these conditions but to a large extent, they influence the choices we make.

One of those conditions is the environment we live in. Our environment influence the choices we make, as it is made up of factors such as culture, religion, social norms and beliefs. As an individual, you will not want to make a choice that is not acceptable in your social environment neither would you like to take a step that is against the culture where you are.

Another condition is peer group. Peer group is a social unit of people who are averagely within the same age gap and class. This group is formed subconsciously by its members. On a more lighter note, peer group can be said to be one’s group of friends.

In this group are rules of engagement which are likely not formally stated but each member seems to be aware of them. Group members do not go against those unspoken rules as it might cost them their membership status. Take for instance, a group of teenage girls where two of the members were found gossiping about another member of the group and others found out. Those two found gossiping stand the chance of getting their membership status withdrawn, probably because the group detest gossip, even though it wasn’t read out to them while in the group.

Therefore, your choice of friends affect the choices you will be making in certain moments of your life.

Your circle of friends will either bring you up or pull you down.

The people we surround ourselves with should inspire us and help us achieve the right things. Most teens tend to trust friends more than their families because they feel safer around them and they understand them better, since they are within the same age bracket. And that is the more reason why we can’t move with just anybody.

Let’s take a look at the choices Ben, a teenage boy, had to make all day;

6:30am: Ben had to choose either to continue his lovely and sweet sleep or to get up to get ready for school;

7:00am: Ben had to choose either to read the newspaper article on his favourite football team or to go to school to avoid being late;

8:30am: Ben had to choose to either listening to the mathematics teacher in front of the class or listening to his friend who was gisting about the match last night with some of the class members while the teacher was facing the board;

3:00pm: Ben had to decide to either join a group of friends who were discussing about the latest post on TMO blog or staying alone to browse through “unedifying and irrelevant” information on the net;

6:00pm: Ben had to either stay back to help his mom with some house chores and homework or go to play a game with his friends;

9:00pm: Ben had to either go to bed early in order to wake early or stay back to watch movies;

The list could go on and on…

From when Ben started the day till he retired for the day, he was faced with various decision making process. Note that a single wrong decision could make the day go bad for him.

In life, we should remember always that a single rough choice could mar the success we hope to achieve.

To avoid embarrassments and failures, as teenagers, we should learn to approach God before making critical decisions such as the choice of friends and career.

Also, teenagers should be patient with decision making. Don’t rush to do what your friends are doing. Take time to ponder over it. A successful person will not be led by what others are doing but by what should be rightly done.

Likewise, we should seek counsel from people who can guide us right. People who can lead us right might not come to us; we should be able to make the decision to go to them to seek counsel by opening up to them.

Your life output is as a result of the choices you make.

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