It was 6 am in the morning I believe,  the air was cool and the sun was beginning to light the city. I was getting ready to travel alone for the very first time. I had 11 years old and scared to death to leave my family for 2 weeks. My destination was Tennessee, I was going to visit my cousins in Nashville. “Come on Raquel it is time to go” my dad told me. I hoped in the car saying a billion words without shutting my self because of how nervous I was. I begged my parents to let me go alone on a trip because I wanted to feel like if I was bigger than my age. ”You are too young, many things can happen” My parents kept telling me but I kept insisting I was responsible enough. I arrived to the airport and there were many strangers, I started to realize my parents were right but I couldn't turn back . “Bye daddy I love you” I told him while I hugged him, he responded back with an “I love you too, see you in two weeks” and I walked away.

A lady was introduced with me as soon as my dad finished the paperwork. The lady did not speak at all. “She will guide you everywhere and you can not separate from her” My dad commanded me. He again told me his goodbyes and left, I was stuck with the silent lady. After a couple of minutes the scary feeling started to fade away, I was getting a bit excited. I walked with my earphones on as if I was in a party. “You will stay here until the flight is ready” the lady interrupted; The room was filled with kids of all ages, everyone was some what my age. I did not know what to do so I sat down with a group of three people and took out my earphones. “Hi my name is Ana” a pretty 12 year old told me; Ana is a blonde blue eyed girl.

“I'm Sophie and this is Rebecca, she doesn't speak much” Sophie told me with a confident voice. “We are the coolest girls here, if you wanna sit with us you need to do what we say” Sophie kept explaining to me. “What is your name and where are you going?” she asked.

“My name is Raquel and I am going to Tennessee” I told the girls nervously.

“ Oh my gosh me too!!!” Sophie shouted, “you will definitely be hanging out with us here” she kept on saying. I began to get happy because I had no one to talk to, I wanted to have new friends. Sophie was the coolest girl from the other two, the other girls followed everything she said, it seemed weird.

“Do any of you have some food?” I asked all of them.

“Go get that bag of chips from that boy” Sophie told me.

“Those bags of chips are his, I cannot take them” I informed her.

“Do it, go!” Sophie kept on insisting. I got nervous and I did not know whether to grab the chips or not, I had never been pressured by anyone it was my first time. I stood up and went to the boy with the chips. “Hey um, can I please have your chips?” I asked him kindly,

“No” he responded and I walked away.

“He said no” I told sophie. Sophie looked at me mad, I got a little scared.

“Look raquel this is how you take a bag of chips” she indicated. Sophie stood up walked over to the boy and snatch the chips, it was surprising how the boy just said ¨HEY!¨ and that was it.

“You see that easy Raquel” she said cheerfully, I kinda got excited.

“Okay fine, I will grab that granola” I added.

“Haha go then!” she encouraged me.

I stood up and walked to the little girl “haha” I blurted and grabbed her granola and walked away. The little girl did nothing like the boy, I was so surprised and I began to think doing that sort of thing was cool so I kept on grabbing food from everyone with Sophie, we had plenty of food. “I like you so much! Good thing we are going to Tennessee together” Sophie reminded me. I began to like her to so we just played with our phones together and told each other our lives. Although we were little girls she had passed through the most funniest things ever, I wanted to be like her. “Raquel, Sophie, Pato, Rodrigo…” and the names kept on going, “come with me” a lady said. We stood up and did as she said, “I guess its time for the flight” I told Sophie. Sophie and I got excited to be on the same flight together. Time passed, we kept on talking and playing for some time, then, we got on the plain and sat down together. I was getting influenced by Sophie by doing bad things, I had no idea. We began to disturb everyone in the plane by shouting or throwing things. The flight attendant gave us warnings but we didn't care. “Many people are complaining about you guys, you need to respect the other people. We gave you 5 warnings and you did not care. Sophie and Raquel we will be contacting your parents” The flight attendant told us. When I was that young calling my parents was a serious thing, I got worried. “My parents don't care, they just give me what I want” Sophie told me and thats when I realized something. I realized that she behaves the way she does because of the freedom she had with her parents. My parents weren't like that, they cared.

    I was feeling very sad for Sophie when she told me her parents didn't care. Was Sophie like that because she had no control? My parents always told me to behave good and they trusted me on going on this trip alone, I was scared of what would happen when the airport localized my parents. Sophie kept on telling me how funny and great this day was but I just contradicted her. I felt dumb for making choices I knew were wrong just because I got peer pressured. A few minutes later the airplane arrived to Tennessee finally, I had butterflies in my stomach. Me and Sophie said our goodbyes when we were getting off, she told me “I hope I see you one day!” and left with a hug. I liked her but she didn't know what wrong she was doing, I felt sorry. My aunt greeted me at the exit and we went to her home, in the car she mentioned something about the airplane and how my mom would talk to me when I arrived home with my cousins. Ring Ring the phone went on, it was my dad. “Raquel we got notified about what happened today at the airport, you said you were responsible enough.” I kept quiet and just told him someone pressured me on doing things and I apologized. My dad gave me a whole speech on how not to act or get influenced by others, I was glad he wasn't that mad yet my mom was mad. After I spoke with my dad I spoke with my mom. “You will not be traveling soon anywhere alone, and when you get home we will talk about your punishment” my mom screamed. I was okay with that because I deserved to be grounded and plus where would I be traveling alone to? I apologized to both of my parents and they hung up the phone happily.

The story is worth telling so people can find out or reflect on how to be a good influence or when you are getting pressured by someone. What is important about the experience is how people can easily get influenced by others to do something and it is also important to reflect on that. What I learned from this is to say no to the things I don't want to do even though they seem fun or cool when they are not good. This helped me to behave better and be careful with my actions.