Peer pressure. What are your thoughts?

I had a conversation with my mom today about peer pressure. You hear all the time from teens that, "my friends do it" or "I did it because my friends made me." It always comes across as an excuse to me. I, personally, do not believe in peer pressure.

When I was in high school I had friends who did everything from smoke pot to snort coke. I had every opportunity to do any number of things "because my friends made me." But, I never did. I went through my teenage years with the attitude that my friends could do whatever they wanted, but I was making my own decisions. If they didn't like me because I didn't do the things they did then they were not worth being my friend. I wasn't by any means a goody goody. I drank, skipped school, snuck out of the house, and missed my curfew, but I did those things because I wanted to, not because my friends wanted me to do them. I just had no desire to do any illegal drug so I didn't. None of my friends held it against me. They offered..........I declined...........life went on as usual.

I once thought I got away with not succumbing to peer pressure because I had such a high self confidence. Looking back that really isn't the case. I was not at all confident. Heck I don't think I had an actual date until after I graduated. LOL I just knew that I didn't want to do some of the things my friends did. I guess I had just enough confidence in myself to thumb my nose at peer pressure or maybe I was just able to pick my friends well and they didn't exert that pressure. Who knows? I just hope that I am able to instill in my kids the self confidence to make their own decisions and not succumb to peer pressure or I hope that they are able to pick friends who do not care to exert that kind of pressure.