Saturday, May 31, 2003
What really matters in high school: being popular or not hurting that geek that you like to talk to outside of school?
Today's teen movies (a k a chick flicks) always seem to show that the popular crowds can easily mingle with the bookworms and dorks. This isn't always true.
I have found this out firsthand.
Moving to a different school this year, I felt the need to be accepted. I changed and temporarily lost what used to be important to me just to impress the cool crowd.
My whole personality changed; I liked guys that normally I wouldn't look at twice, but I did because they were cool. Luckily, I was saved from this high school monster a few weeks ago, and I had a total change in my mind-set.
One of the nicest guys in the school, who happens to be a dork in most people's eyes, asked me to prom. I almost said no, even though I wanted to go with him and we were friends.
What would possess me to say no?
Everyone thought it was uncool to go to prom with such a geek, no matter how nice he is.
After two days of trying to avoid him because I wanted to go, but I also was thinking about saying no to him, I finally prioritized my values.
I asked myself what mattered more: the people who I thought were my friends or a guy that I knew was my friend.
Finally, I decided that I couldn't bear to see my friend hurt because of my selfish need to be with the in-crowd.
I told him yes; some of my friends thought that I was stupid for deciding to go with him.
What I decided
In my eyes, this was the smartest decision I had made in a long time. I have decided that it doesn't matter how many friends you have if they aren't really your friends.
The saying "quality, not quantity" holds true for friends.
By the time I am out of college, my dad said, I will have only a handful of friends that I will be able to truly count on. To me, this handful of friends is all that matters.
I will have many acquaintances that will come and go in my life.
Friends will never ask you to change. They will support your decisions, whether they like it or not.
Friends are forever; dorks or jocks, they should be there.
Isn't that all the matters? Teen movies can have their perfect little worlds, but it doesn't always mean that is how it is for real. All that matters is that you stay true to yourself and your friends.
This high-school monster cannot be eliminated, but with hard work, we can hopefully be able to hang out with different groups of people and not be criticized by our peers.
XAshley, 15, goes to Western Reserve High School. She rides and shows reining horses and lives in Canfield with her parents, two brothers and two dogs.