Personal Experience

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Personal Experience
A child’s behavior is significantly influenced by his or her peer interactions (Bukowski, Brett and Kenneth 58). I grew up in a neighborhood with many children my age. This implied that I never lacked people with whom to play. It also meant that I was more exposed to peer influence. From my interactions with peers, I would always pick up several habits some of which were not good at all. One of the habits I picked from my peers was sneaking out of school.
On one occasion, we had agreed to go swimming. That morning, I did not wait for the school bus as usual. Once I was outside our compound, I walked to an isolated spot, changed into civilian clothes, pushed my uniform into my school bag and hid the bag in the hedge. I then walked lazily to the river where we had agreed to meet. My friends came, and we had fun as usual. At four pm, it was time to return home. I headed back to the spot where I had hidden my bag hoping to dress in my school uniform.
On the spot, I met a different picture. The hedge had been trimmed, and my school bag was not there. I knew what this meant, I had to face my parents and explain where I had been when I was supposed to be in school. I expected my father to kill me. Instead of the usual whipping, my mother called me for a talk. She wanted to know how long I had been sneaking out of school. Out of fear, I told her everything. The following morning she took me to the school where I was booked in for counseling sessions.

With the support of the school counseling department, I stopped sneaking out of school and started concentrating on my studies.
Looking back at this experience, I understand that it had been a turning point in my life. Had this not happened, most probably I would not have made it to college. I would have continued sneaking out of school and probably ended up in offences like drug use.

Work Cited
Bukowski, William M., Brett Laursen, and Kenneth H. Rubin, eds. Handbook of peer interactions, relationships, and groups. Guilford Publications, 2018.