This term in Health we have been focusing on the topic of Alcohol and Safe drinking. Throughout this topic, we have been learning how to respectfully decline alcoholic beverages from peers and friends which may help us not to get caught under the hood of peer pressure. We’ve gone through Alcohol safety guidelines as a precaution for when we get older and decide to drink, as well as going through information based on standard drinking and short/long-term effects that high amounts of alcohol can do to our health and body. In this Health project, we were to get into groups of 3-4 and pick up to a minimum of 4 issues from a list related to Alcohol and binge drinking as a theme for our group’s stall. The purpose of this assignment was to recount what we have learned over the course of the term on those topics and present our knowledge to our classmates in an interesting and creative way. My group chose to present our information and knowledge through a game of Kahoot with skittles as the prize for winners.

What were the biggest thing you learn while completing this task?

One of the biggest things I have learned throughout completing this task is that the topic of ‘making decisions is a crucial skill that all teens and young adults should develop. I’ve learned that making decisions can be rather difficult and topping that off with peer pressure can be an extremely heavy weight of stress to know which decision to pick. Making decisions are influenced by friends, and I’ve learned that people may not result in picking the right decision because they’re afraid of losing their relationship with their friends or not being able to please and have a good time with them. I feel that making decisions is one of the biggest things that I have learned because sometimes I feel that when I’m making a decision, I’m not always considering how it will affect me but how it will affect how my friends view me. I’ve learned that instead of thinking about how my decisions will affect my friends I should think about how my decisions with affect me and whether I’m doing the right thing for myself or not.

Another thing that I learned while completing this task is that communicating within a group is extremely important. Effective communication between group members is an integral part of having a more creative and successful way of educating other peers about a topic. In my group, I felt that in many discussions we did use effective communication to form ideas of how we could get our information/research across in an entertaining way. However again I felt like we lacked communication in terms of preparation of our stall and how we were going to set it up. For example, we should have communicated more about where we planned to set up and how we were going to display our game. Overall, my group did well when it came to communication. We made a team chat and we were comfortable to freely share our ideas with one another.

What one piece of advice would you pass on to young teenagers above all else? Why?

One piece of advice that I would pass on to other young teenagers is that you should never feel pressured to do something you don’t feel comfortable doing and know is wrong. I would pass down this advice because I know that peer pressure is a great issue in our world today. Especially for Teens. They feel that if they don’t follow the crowd and go along with what everyone else is doing, they won’t be accepted or appreciated as an individual. I feel that this message of making the right decisions is extremely important in life because then later on in our lives we won’t have the burden of regret of the poor choices we made because we thought we were doing good for ourselves and others.

Write down a pledge that you will commit to if you start drinking alcohol (at the legal age of 18 years). Why did you pick these things to commit to? How will you stick to these commitments?

I make a commitment to not drink alcohol while under the age of 18 years and if I start drinking alcohol at the legal age of 18 years, I will make sure to control my drinking and drink appropriately. I will also make sure to make appropriate decisions if I am faced in a situation where I’m being peer pressured into drinking. I chose to commit to these things in order to prevent risks to my health in the future and prevent myself from getting into any sort of trouble. I will stick to these commitments by avoiding parties that I know I won’t feel comfortable at and might be influenced under the wrong circumstances. If I ever do attend a party while under the age of 18 that has alcoholic beverages; I will choose the healthier and less risky alternative. Soft drinks, fruit juice, water, etc. I promise to stay true to these commitments and use what I’ve learned in class to prevent the consumption of any alcoholic beverages under the age of 18.