Finding Your Place in High School

“Why fit in when you can stand out?” You have been told this your whole life. But whose responsibility is it to find out where you fit in, yours? Or your peers? Your adolescent years are all about trying to not stand out, and trying just as hard to fit in with the “in crowd.” You use more energy trying to “fit in,” instead of just spending all your energy on being who you really are. A group of friends are suppose to have things in common, but that is hard when everyone is putting up a fake persona. It is the student body’s responsibility to make sure that everyone has a place they can fit in and be themselves. People spend their whole lives trying to “fit in,” while the people who “stand out” are the ones who become something. Think about it, how many times have you looked at a kid eating alone and instead of asking him to join you, you instead ignore him and pretend that it is just how things work.

Through the years you hear it from older siblings and in the media people saying, the number one tip to surviving high school is this: Do not stand out, just fit in and you will make it. But this is not always true, when you fit in you are cheating yourself. You never will know what you can accomplish. There is always that voice in your head saying “What will people think of me? Will they think I am weird?” As the “Girls Bullying” article points out, “These acts can include rumor spreading, secret divulging, alliance-building, backstabbing, ignoring, excluding from social groups and activities, verbally insulting, and body language,” (“Girls Bullying Girls; an Introduction to Relational Aggression”). In high school in order to not feel ridiculed most people walk on egg shells, they just stay under the radar so nobody talks bad abou...

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...body,” (Beth Greenfield). The school could of easily set an example for kids at the school, and for kids all over the country. Instead they decided to show that people do not like different, and they have a hard time accepting it.

Everyone deserves to find their place in school, and in life. Your adolescent years are all about trying to not stand out, and trying just as hard to fit in with the “in crowd.” You use more energy trying to “fit in,” instead of just spending all your energy on being who you really are. A group of friends are suppose to have things in common, but that is hard when everyone is putting up a fake persona. It is the student body’s responsibility to make sure that everyone has a place they can fit in and be themselves. So, next time you see a kid eating alone, invite him to sit with you. You never know he could end up being your best friend.