I knew someone would say that :D
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I knew someone would say that :D
When I went to highschool, the guys that were "popular" were the guys that now hate their life. They either go to **** colleges or don't go at all. Trust me when I say be yourself and do whatever you think is right. And don't care what anyone else thinks about you, that is for you to decide.
Seriously, you will be a lot happier.
Hey, I go to a shitty college. :(Quote:
They either go to **** colleges or don't go at all.
Well, at least I'm going, right? :D
lol
Sorry I didn't clear up that part about skaters/sk8ers. Basically, I'm talking about skateboarders. And in the same sense that in the hacking community the l33t and the elite, etc., there is a difference. Basically, the sk8ers are the people who do it simply as a popularity boost (or to simply show off and be cool, not praticing and perfecting), and aren't really doing it for the joy of skateboarding. I tried to skateboard for about two years, but decided it wasn't for me and went back into BMX/Freestyle. Infact, while everyone was skateboarding and roller/inline-blading, I was the only person riding bikes among them for those 2-3 years. I didn't do it to show off or stand out, I rode bikes because I thought it was fun, and quite frankly, because I couldn't skateboard or roller-blade. Later on biking gained popularity, but none of the people who decided to pick it up now that it was cool got the admiration/respect/praise of people like me who did it for so much longer and tried hard to learn and do new things. In the end going against the flow was good when people decided to look in my direction. I didn't take advantage of it since I'm not really concerned about that, I was just happy that there were more people to bike with. So I guess keeping dedicated to something you enjoy can do you good later in life. :)
And I'll tell more about the person who was busted...he was on the front page of the local newspaper related to what he did... He was looking for acceptance in the wrong direction, got involved with the wrong people, but I think he was given a second-chance. He had to move since our school district wouldn't let him return, though. There is a huge story behind what went on that many people at my school didn't fully understand or realize, but there was another person who was kicked out earlier related to drugs before he was caught. I think the year following that a similar event happened since the school was assigned their very own FBI Agent and about a month later I realized that my homeroom class (and another class too) was one student short for the rest of the year... And in one of those classes that ran a kid short, the agent kindly introduced himself and told everyone he is "just going to be doing his job"...
And two of these three people were in the popularity gang/drama. There was only one whom I deeply disliked, one whom I knew for some time before this, and the third was just in my classes for a month or two. I know that what I've seen are the extreame ends of the doom of those who play the popularity contest, but similar fates come to those people who don't realize that they need to win the game instead of pimping it. All three were pimping these different games somehow and all of them lost. I guess that those who come out on the bottom of the game end up flipping burgers, missing opportunities in education to get further in life, or other bad things.
And as HTRegz said, the game doesn't end with high-school. I saw this same game while I was lifeguarding. Office politics, and everything related. I saw the beginnings of it my first year lifeguarding, and I saw the game's gears turning with perfect motion my second year. The big players were the generally the same, the job the same, but different managers (game/dungeon masters/controllers). I tried to keep out of these politics both years, and I can say my second year was pretty crummy. Those who managed to ignore the game and not get burned by it that second year (new lifeguards who didn't see it before) came out 200% better off. Since I was a second-year lifeguard and well respected there was no way I could completely avoid the game since those who were burned by (unsettled/upset first year lifeguards) it wanted appeasement, so I was drawn into it anyways. Simply put, there are going to be many cases where all of well respected (second-year lifeguards) cannot win, and I was quickly the only one left since I didn't get completely involved... Yes, people quit and were fired by quite the handful... In the end, those who 100% avoided the game or simply didn't know it existed came out 200% better off by being neutral to it.
As can probably be seen by my looking into the popularity contest and the other games around it, I am not a person who can just see interesting things go on and not get curious. I like to understand things, and I'll take the risks involved if I think it is worth it in the end. I don't follow the popularity crew, and I don't see any reason to. At my current school, this contest is the smallest I've seen it anywhere. There is very little friction between the different groups and no universal popularity or hate. There are bigger issues inside of some groups, but it isn't wide spread, and usually temporary. I'm guessing that in a small town of 20,000 people these issues were fixed sometime in middle school or earlier, but also prevented by the open-mindedness of northern Idahoans. I just came to the school my Junior year, and the biggest difference I saw was the "senior highschool" was grades 10-12, while freshmen were with middle schoolers. I guess that the smaller age range and slightly more maturity effectively stops the childish popularity wars over here. I guess there is something innately uncool about people in the higher grades trying to pimp freshmen at the Junior high-school, haha. :p
Once again this came out longer than I expected. Oh well. At least I'm going to a decent college that was supposedly rated as one of the best broadband Universities. I guess having everyplace on campus have access to at least 10mbit/s ethernet Internet connection or WiFi isn't too bad for me. :)
I have something i'd like to share:
To fill you in on myself I've been through high school, college (will have my bach. degree in 5 months :) ), professional environments and all types of social functions and for those of you in High School reading this:
Right now you think you've got it all figured out, in 5 years you'll wonder what the hell you were thinking, just as in five years i myself will be surprised how much more there is than i think now :)
Look around you, all the people into the popularity are followers, (not popular people, the people CONCERNED with popularity) The people unconcerned with what others think, the people who express themselves, sometimes the "dorks", "nerds", "weirdos", other times the popular people, these are the leaders, the people who will create new technologeis, make tons of money, and perhaps be happier in life, why is it? Because they think for themselves and speak their ideas without fear of rejection as well as they do not stress with other peoples opinions, or shouldn't. :)
High School is like the first trial at life, the social patters are set down and people move into adulthood, some people learn alot in how to act and stop acting like high schoolers,but many go into the rest of their adult lives keeping those highschooler behaviors such as gossip, office politics ect.. but if you just accept that some people will be like this you'll find people to befriend that are above these behaviors.
Anyone have anything to add
Middle schoolers and High schoolers are wrapped pretty tight about the popularity **** because most of the kids are struggling with self-esteem issues or just trying to figure out who they are. The kids who don't really care about popularity tend to have a higher self-esteem, they don't ned to be propped up by the masses.
Being liked is not the same as "popular." It is important to have friends, good friends. It is important to be liked and respected in your circle or profession. Leave the popularity game for People magazine.