Young men, Peer Pressure and Phony Friendships (part 3)

The young man's name was Theolic Yung Manning. He had been out of high school for two years and was approaching his 20th birthday. He was of mixed ethnicity. He was part Black, part Asian, and part white. He felt comfortable with Mexicans from the neighborhood. He enjoyed their company very much. All of them were Roman Catholic. Theolic was not. He was invited to parties, infant baptisms, quinceaneras, dances and other festivities. He enjoyed most of them. At every single function there was beer. He did not like beer. Sometimes a beer was placed in his hand. He could not fake it, so he drank. He learned to like the beer. He learned to like the comraderie. He learned to like the environment. It was pleasurable for him. Theolic had other interests as well. He enjoyed playing sports. He enjoyed studying. Some of his friends enjoyed watching sports; but none enjoyed playing them. His friends liked to just "hang out" and talk about music, girls, and parties. Theolic worked part time as a gardener and went part time to a community college. Sometimes he really enjoyed his classes. Particularly an English composition class. He had turned in some fairly good work. He tried to study on weekends but the pursuit of pleasure overcame him. Too many weekends were spent with friends that he felt he "needed." Maybe they needed him. Maybe they needed someone else to drink and smoke weed with. He dropped out of school. Not one of his "friends" encouraged him to reenroll. One night he was driving home from a party. He was drunk. He ran a red light and a car hit him broadside on the driver's side. He was killed at the scene. Three out of eight "friends" went to his funeral.