By Kavya Singhal:
When I think about High school, the first few things that come to my mind are hormonal roller coaster rides, crazy friends, loads of arguments, ruthless bullies, fickle relationships, sickening drama and of course, then comes having to deal with all of it.
Every thirteen to fourteen year old enters this maze to be lost for about 1460 days. That’s a lot of time, isn’t it? This is the time when most of us meet the best of friends and the worst of enemies. This is the time when the never ending hours are busy shaping us to become who we’d be tomorrow. This is the time that we prioritize to achieve our goals and this is the time that will always matter. For those who are one of those popular kids at school, high school may seem like Disney land. For the ones who don’t fit into the puzzle, it’s nothing more than a prison. I’ve been in both places, and now I’m somewhere in the middle. I went from having a gazillion fake friends to a few true friends; “Quality is more important than quantity” after all.
I’d like to emphasize on a point I made earlier about people who don’t “fit in”. This isn’t actually a problem just in high school. I have a friend who’s in college right now and he tried weed. He admitted that he didn’t really want to. So why did he do it? “Because all my friends were…” he said. A lot of children do get into drugs even during high school. Majority of these kids would’ve probably originally started only due to peer pressure. I haven’t been one of those kids because I don’t really get influenced easily by other people, so I don’t really know. Research says that some kids do it because of “depression”. I don’t think I’ve ever been “depressed” enough to do drugs.
Though I’ve never been in the extreme situations mentioned above, I do know that trying to fit in never really works. You might paint a completely different version of yourself for the world to see, but at the end of the day, you are who you are. So what if you’re not like them? So what if you stand out? That’s a good thing, no? You stand out because you’re not just another pretty little pebble in the sand. You didn’t round your edges to be a pebble. You’re a stone. You are a rough-edged stone.
To them, it’s not okay if you’re fat, and if you’re thin, they don’t even leave your bust size alone! If you happen to be a victim of such shallow elitists, just remember that these people can feel good about themselves only if they can make other people feel terrible. These people have a lot going on in their lives in actuality.
I don’t know if anyone reading this has ever done it but I know a lot of people who get into “relationships” to fit in. Now, I know that this might seem to be like the most essential part of your life during a certain time, but you’d realize soon enough that it’s untrue. Be with whoever you want to, but your motive should not be an attempt to fit in.
There are a lot of ups and downs during a lifetime. I’m not old enough to be able to say what happens afterwards and I don’t know how old you are. But if you happen to be in high school, don’t forget that there’s a real world waiting for you outside. It is a world that won’t care about how “hot” or “nerdy” you are. It’s a world that would care about who you really are, your talents and your achievements; in which the ability to fit in certainly doesn’t count.
Go ahead and make your mistakes, learn from your regrets and get over them. But don’t forget that the tangible world awaits you.