Like most former teenagers, I grew up hearing from the adults in my life how important it was to resist pressure from peers to engage in various illicit activities: smoking cigarettes, doing drugs, underage drinking, having premarital sex, experimenting with Ouija boards, etc. Most of these were things I never had an opportunity to decline, to an extent that was occasionally disappointing. Perhaps teens don’t do these things anymore, or perhaps I just attended Calvin and spent my weekends editing the student newspaper.
However, that doesn’t mean my life has been free of pressure to conform with my peers, and it’s not gone away now that I’ve graduated from college. Here’s a list of five things you will actually have to learn how to say no to in your early adult years.
5. Running: I thought I’d left this one behind in high school. However, it’s followed me into full-fledged adulthood. If I say I’m bored and/or looking to make new friends, someone’s gotta come up with, “Just join a run club.”
4. Going swimming in very cold bodies of water: I almost left this one off the list, because it’s mostly only a specific friend of mine that does this. Nevertheless, I added it because recently I’ve seen some wellness influencers on Instagram advocating the benefits of taking an ice bath in what appears to be a bougie stock tank. If this trend takes off, be prepared to say “no thank you” to bathing in homebrew Titanic death simulators.
3. Drinking your social group’s preferred kind of alcohol: This is different from pressure to drink alcohol. In my experience, social groups where there is a right and a wrong alcoholic beverage are often very accommodating of the decision not to drink. They’ll offer you tea, juice, sparkling water, or the closest non-alcoholic equivalent of their drink of choice. On the other hand, saying you like High Noons in front of a serious-craft-beer crowd, or cracking open an ale in front of a fruity-little-drink bunch? Weirdly embarrassing, even if the pressure is mostly imagined. (Hard cider is a safe bet that straddles the line between “local brewery vibes” and “sweet, possibly fizzy beverage.”)
2. Ignoring your lactose intolerance: Gluten-free people are generally good about leaving you alone here. From everyone else, whether it’s a cheese pizza, a cream-based soup, or a ricotta-filled lasagna on the table, you’re going to hear, “It’s not that much dairy.” Usually emphasizing how sick you’re going to feel will get them to shut up. However, for reasons I still don’t understand, you might still get the occasional, “Well, you can always wrap up a piece to take home.”
1. Driving faster: I might receive some hate for this one, because even some otherwise level-headed and conscientious people whom I respect have said how annoying it is when people “drive slow.” Nevertheless, if I could include only one item in this listicle, this would be it. As an American, you will experience more pressure to drive faster than to do anything else in your life. Your closest friends and strangers on the street alike will do their best to convince you to put your foot on the gas.
After graduating from Calvin in May 2025 with a degree in writing and Spanish, G. E. Buller decided to stay in Grand Rapids. Currently, she is working as a special education aide. Her non-writing hobbies include fussing over her aquarium and reading about medieval/early modern nuns.
