Okay, so in the past week the utter nonsense of labeling people has really come to light in my mind.
Not because it's unfair.
Not because it's based primarily on appearance, which the majority of us can't change significantly.
Not because it's often hurtful and exclusionary.
Rather, because it just doesn't matter.
I'm known as a good kid. A prep. A smart kid. Some combination of those three I guess. My participation in the arts, strong sense of spirituality, and excellent brownie recipes are overlooked by most of my teachers and peers for the sake of fitting me into a box.
But I recently got snubbed to a higher level than ever before.
It takes A LOT to get me going. I'm laid back, opinionated, and I love debate, which turns out to be an interesting combination. I'm passionate, but I hate confrontation and tension.
Most of all, I am a social butterfly. I can literally walk up to any person in my class of 320 and just be like 'hey what's up," and the weird-o-meter will be at a tolerable level.
But I was hanging out with a different group for a couple of months because I joined a new afterschool thing. And I guess I've just developed this social comfort, where I think I can behave the way I normally do all the time. Well they just didn't go for it, and when the end of our last event came and went, I was not invited to the big after party.
Was I hurt? Yeah, for sure, because I have parties all the time and everyone with any interest is invited. And I tried real hard to befriend these folks too.
But I guess the more important thing is that this was a blatant slap in the face that
a) not everyone will like you
b) brownies don't make friends (3 batches, and still no luck)
and most importantly
c) no matter what labels are put on you, that's not who you are. And in the end, real humans won't like/dislike you because of how you are defined by others.
I gotta say, this makes me give a little more credit to the emos in my life who wear shirts that say "I'd rather be hated for what I am than loved for something I'm not."
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It's so true how people just see certain aspects of you and immediately fit you with a steriotype. I'm glad you can feel confident enough to just be yourself no matter what the circumstances.
I'm glad you realize that...I just wish it was that easy for all people...I go to a high school of over 4000 kids...and labels define everyone and who you are...I've been labeled as everything from emo, goody goody, overachiever, stuck-up...just to name a few...the saddest thing is that at my school people depend on these labels so much that we act out just to fit them...I've acted like every single one of the things I've been labeled as...and it hasn't gained or lost me any friends....I'm friends with people on different levels regardless of labels...so even though I've learned to be myself and that it's the best thing to do...it's still really sad to see how much stereo types define our society and how we act