Blog 7

Yoon Saechow

Dawn Blunk

Transitional English

May 21, 2011

Salvation

            In Langston Hughes’ “Salvation” he explains that when he was a naïve child his Aunt Reed took him to a big revival at her church; where he and other young sinners would be saved by God.  While at the church he was pressure by his aunt and fellow church members to see the light and be saved by God, like any adolescent kid he believed that there was an actual sign he was supposed to see before approaching the altar; where the rest of the other young sinners whom been saved by the higher power were at.  This sign never came he waited and waited while his aunt and members of the church all swarm him to being saved by God, the stress of being under pressure to be saved by God led Hughes lying so he would not be under the scrutiny of the church members and his aunt.  Lying was not Hughes objective he wanted to believe in Jesus, but this experience made him question his beliefs and was force to lie under the pressures of the congregation.   The insight Hughes gain from the ordeal at the church was his belief in Jesus and if he really does exist, but Hughes questioning his beliefs would not have happen if Hughes was not pressure and force to believe what other believe.  Just like Hughes in “Salvation” I have also been peer pressured into doing things I didn’t want to do by my so-called friends who wanted me to live their lifestyle of doing nothing with their lives, the benefit we gain from peer pressure is that it teaches us about ourselves and it tests our will.

            Just like Hughes, I was peer pressured into going out every night and wasting my life away with the friends I had at the time, but was able to gain beneficial information about myself from the peer pressure.  A few years ago I was peer pressure into hanging out every night drinking and wasting my life away with my friends.  Doughboy one of the friends I had at that time would call me up every night and say, “Hey, let’s go drink,” and I would replied, “I’m okay, I don’t want to,” he would retort back, “Why are you being such a punk, I’m not going to be your friend anymore.”  So Doughboy’s way of making me hang out and go drink with him was to threaten our friendship, a ploy he was able to utilize for a good amount of time.  A year later of living Doughboy’s life of just drinking and going out every night, I realize that this was not my life I plan to live.  So the same ploy he always use to have me go hang out with him and the rest of the friends to drink came to an end, I stood my ground and said, “I’m not living like this anymore, I know I can do more with my life than this B.S. every night,” Doughboy did not like hearing this he tried to threaten our friendship again, but this time around I replied,”Hey, if we’re not friends anymore maybe it’s better if it’s that way, because I want to make something out of myself.”   This was the last conversation with had, but the experience from the peer pressure taught me to be true to myself and live my life the way I want and not how someone else want me to.