Pressure

   At a young age Hughes felt the pressure from his aunt and fellow church members to be saved by God. His aunt had always told him joyful experiences about being saved, claiming that he would have a major interaction with Jesus. When he was called down he did not feel or see any of the things his aunt previously told him, and  want to go in front of everyone and lie about being saved. He ultimately went down because of the preacher repeatedly asking him, “ "Why don't you come? My dear child, why don't you come to Jesus? Jesus is waiting for you. He wants you. Why don't you come?, and shamefully holding up the church. The pressure of everyone got to him, and he felt terrible in the end for lying to everyone. I can relate to feeling pressured of doing something that I had doubts about, in order to please my family.


        I was in sixth grade, the year was coming to an end at Bidwell Elementary. Our graduation ceremony practice was coming up soon, but I ultimately  could not wait to walk across the stage, and see my family in the crowd, cheering me on to the next stage of my life. Roughly 56 students crowed into the stuffy, hot cafeteria, ready to practice what we were supposed to do for the ceremony. The teachers proudly announced that if anyone wanted to give a speech for their class that they could, and that the essay was to be due in a week. I instantly knew that I was going to be 1 of the 2 speakers giving their class speech. I ran home that day and told my dad about the essay. He encouraged me to do it, saying that it would be a memorable experience for my family to see and a good accomplishment, so  I went to my room, sat  down, and wrote my speech out in 45 minutes while listening to”Carry on my Wayward Son” by Kansas. I then memorized it in a day. My peers, teachers, and family loved my speech. The Principal Mrs. Wardwick. picked me and a close friend of mine Ruby, to be the class speakers. I felt accomplished, and was content with  my family being proud of me as well. The days were drawing in on graduation, and I began have second thoughts about speaking at my graduation. The thought of me walking on stage and speaking to not only my peers, my my peer's families as well scared me. I had never gave a speech before, so I was absolutely mortified. But then I remembered my dads smile, and how happy he was when I told him the good news, and how excited the rest of  my family was. The last thing I wanted to do was take that happiness away from them. The pressure of making my family happy ultimately drove me to overcome my fear of public speaking, and it wasn't as horrible as I thought. During my speech I stared at a Britney Spears “Got Milk” poster ad on the wall of the cafeteria. Seeing her white mustache, and silly look on her face somehow calmed me down. Britney got me through that hardship definitely.