Pre-Reading: The House of the Scorpion

Think of the following two words: conscience and friendship.  Explain how each word influences decision making.  When making decisions which is a "bigger influence" for you and why?

Conscience and friendship influence you when you are making decisions. Sometimes it's a good thing, sometimes it's not. Friendship influences you because you don't want your friends to be mad at you for doing something they don't like. Also if your friend asks you to do something you want to do/try or help them do it. Conscience is also an influence on decision making because sometimes someone will ask you to do something you don’t agree with and your conscience tells you what to do.

Sometimes your friends will ask you to do something you know is wrong; some will do it, others won’t. Some will do it to impress or to keep the friendship. The ones who don’t do it are the ones I look up to, they don’t do something just because they were asked to do it. They are brave and strong to go against what their friends asked them to do. I don’t think you should do something you know is wrong just because your friends or even your family asked you. Everyone is different, some will do anything for their friends/family. While some take the time to think things through and see if the outcome is worth having to deal with the repercussion of doing something that is wrong. If your friends are true friends than they will forgive you. They will understand that you don’t want to do it. They would understand the toll it would take on you emotionally and/or physically. If they don’t understand or can’t forgive you for not doing it, then they aren’t true friends. They don’t care about you enough to understand that if you do something that goes against what you believe or that is wrong it will take a toll on you emotionally, that you might never be the same because of it.

Some people let their friends decide what to do for them, or let them influence their decisions. These decisions aren’t always about doing good or bad, sometimes it’s about something like what college you apply to. You want to stay with your friends so you apply to the same college/university as them even if you don’t want to go or have an opportunity to go to a top college. When I am making decisions conscience is a bigger influence on me. I wouldn’t do something that I know and/or believe is wrong even if my friends asked me to do it. Conscience is a bigger influence on me because I believe that it is better to have my closest friends being angry or disappointed in me than to have my conscience weighing me down because I did something that is wrong. If I did something that I know is wrong just because my friends asked me to do it, I don’t think I would be able to forgive myself. My conscience would never let me forget about it.

For me my conscience is a bigger influence on my decisions than my friends. Even though I do take them into consideration, my conscience, in the end is what is a bigger influence on my decision making.