This I Believe First Draft

I believe that people need to care less about what other people think about them, and stop letting them influence your decisions on a day to day life. Your life should be decided by you, and only influenced by people who truly hold permanent meaning in your life. Many people enter your life, and only a very small percent of those people are here to stay. So why would you let something temporary alter who you are? Worrying about what other people think about you results in making terrible decisions that are not who you are. Part of life is deciding who to trust and let influence you. Whether or not you trust your family or not, they are here to stay and should not be taken for granted. I have realized that it is a whole skill to decide who to be influenced by and who not to. I have found myself influenced by people that hold no meaning in my overall life, and have experienced negative results. You often become the people you surround yourself with, and other people see that as well. As much as people admit they don't judge others, they always do. The company you keep can create a good or bad first impression. Nothing is harder than turning down your friends when they want to do something stupid or what they consider cool. You are taught from day one to not give into peer pressure, but it's nothing like the real thing. When the people you consider important give you all the reasons why doing something is good, you believe them, without hesitation. I have learned that if your people know what will hurt you, they won't push you to do it in the first place. With trial and error I have learned how nice it is to meet the right people and fall into place perfectly. If you are smart with you let influence you and let the people who are important influence you, you will be happy and content with where you are.