It is true, from what I’ve seen, that all students, not just some, want to fit in and be socially accepted in their school. They all want to be sitting at the table during lunch where kids laugh and throw things and wear expensive, stylish clothes. They all want to be invited to the sweet party where all the “cool” people are going over the weekend. And all of them will do almost anything to sit there, laugh will those kids, go to that party.

At the same time, it is also true, that even while we want to fit in, we want to stand out. We want what we wear to say “Here I am!” We want to do new things, say new things, wear new things, and be noticed as we do.
It’s not impossible to walk this thin line, but it’s not easy. And why go through the trouble when who you are naturally is always, ALWAYS, ten times better than the person you pretend to be?

I know I’ve personally done it because it’s the best way to defend myself from the way things are and the unwritten rules that say they should be that way. I have to measure and construct every sentence before I speak it, look at every outfit before I wear it, and spend hours on my makeup before I accept it. And the person I am underneath it all, the one that I should be developing instead of hiding, doesn’t matter until I’m all alone again and no one can see that who they know me as is not who I am inside.

The way people treat me when they see the socially-constructed me is often better than they treat me when they see the normal, exposed, no-makeup, no fancy clothes, no pre-written sentences me. I don’t know why that is the way that it is, I just know that I can’t be myself without others taking advantage of my vulnerability and using it to climb one step higher than the level I stand on in our perfect little social structure.

In this constant, cultural obsession, we have learned nothing if not this, “Who you are, who god made you, doesn’t matter. What matters is how well you can pretend that you’re someone else.”

We shouldn’t let what other people say or do or think shape who we will become or who we are now. We were each born a different way, with different strengths and weaknesses, not so we could trample on others or be trampled on, but so when the time came when we or someone else needed support, there would always be a strong shoulder to lean on.