Kyle Winterbottom Research Paper

Kyle Winterbottom is only one of many teens to learn the hard way the negative effects of peer pressure. He was only 16 when he fell off of a balcony on the third floor. He was with friends drinking when six or seven people came down to their floor from a party. The strangers were drunk and asking for cigarettes, they also may have spiked Kyle’s drink. His parents say he wasn’t always doing drugs and drinking but pressure from his peers got him into it and now he is dead. Sadly it is too late for Kyle, but to avoid ending up in his shoes it is important to form our conscience. The first step is to learn from and turn to reliable sources. This could mean the Bible, which contains the best example of how to live a moral life. We can also turn to people in our lives that have well informed consciences. There are also seven virtues that help us combat vices, bad habits that lead to an immoral character and sin. Kyle faced two vices; pride and gluttony. Most likely he thought too highly of himself to hurt his image by staying home from parties and thought that he knew what was best for himself. The virtue of prudence could’ve helped him to make the responsible choice to stay home and not get involved with drugs or alcohol. Temperance, control over wants, would have
stopped him from his gluttony of alcohol. After looking to good examples of people with formed consciences and using the seven virtues, the next step is to make a choice based on discernment.
In this situation the choice is whether or not to go to a certain party. Discernment is deciding through prayer and reflection. Prayer is very strong and can lead you in the right direction. If prayer isn’t your thing, at least take some time to reflect; “Will this party be safe?”, “Will it tempt me to do sinful things aka vices?”,” Is it going to give me true happiness, meaning will it lead me to the Kingdom of God?”. If it is going to hurt your relationship with God then you should consider staying home. The next step is to simply do what you decided to
do. Lastly you should think about what you did and whether it was the right thing to do or not. If you made a bad choice then you will know not to do it again. If you made the right choice then you know it’s not so hard to do the right thing and you can easily do it again. Conscience is not supposed to be based on a majority opinion so it’s important to never do anything just because your friends are doing it. With these steps and resources hopefully people can make better choices when it comes to parties.