Plastics (Blog #18)

So, after a good, long, seven minutes of thinking, I've come to the realization that one: I'd better type something here lest I receive a zero for this assignment, and two: I am much too easily influenced by others, especially authority figures. Much of my current behavior stems from things taught in my elementary and middle school years, whether it be the obsession with washing my hands before meals (to the point where I made sure to wash my hands ten seconds longer during the winter due to the colder weather) because of a few videos that we watched in first grade to the odd choice to carefully monitor what I ate from second grade on because of a "health day," to the thankfully more pertinent lessons that taught us to keep away from harmful drugs. Unlike quite a few of my peers who witnessed similar videos, I have continued to keep such lessons in mind throughout my daily life. There are even a few outdated principles tied to my religion that few people my age still abide by that I do. Sometimes I even wonder if some of my opinions are truly self-made, simply due to the influence of friends and family, or were crafted by authority figures in my life. Seeing as how I am going to be eighteen in less than half a year, I will need to begin developing my own opinions based more so on facts than on the influence of others, something that I should have been doing quite a while ago. That is not to say that the advice of others cannot play a role in my decision making or my life in general, but I need to learn just how much influence I let such advice have, and most importantly, I need to learn how to make concrete, definite decisions without being too heavily influenced by others if need be.