There's lots of warnings against peer pressure - a famed weapon of mass destruction. "Don't let anyone pressure you into doing something you don't want to!" they say. "Don't feel pressured to be who you are not!" they say. Yet, most of the pressure I've felt and have given into through out my existence has not been from peers. My peers are safe spaces. Pressure-free spaces. They are not the ones stepping on my neck. They are not my ruin. With them, I find that I can be who I really am, flourish and grow. No pressure. So who is it that keeps prancing upon my neck? Who keeps snuffing out my barely kindled will to be? Who fills my life with this ruinous pressure? I wonder. Pressure - of any kind - when applied in great enough quantities, brings forth wreckage. A small crack, a grand explosion, a sudden implosion, total disintegration. It won't leave you the same, no matter how strong you believe your structure to be. None is immune to its force. At least not forever. A great law teaches that every action is met with an equal reaction in opposition. So pressure me, and I crack, cave-in and disintegrate. I must and I do, for it is the law. But much to my dismay and as my misfortune dictates, I always implode. I remain the lone casualty. You stand unscathed. No one but I ever knows it's happening. As sure as the sun is hot, I pick up the pieces, only to implode again. Forever, the only casualty; your weight still firmly pressed upon my neck. One day, however, the great law will guide me to a glorious explosion. Maybe then, you will finally be flung off my neck and watch as my will to be is fully ignited. My grim desire to erupt with the terror of a fiery volcano will be fulfilled; let my magma touch you. Though you can't possibly feel all my rage, in its abounding chaos may you remain. Bloody and afraid, but finally away from my neck. No pressure.
