It’s easy to become nostalgic for what people refer to as the “good old days,” when almost everyone was trusted.
Back then, children would play for hours in the neighborhood — in other people’s homes and yards — unsupervised. Back then, children would walk to school, head gleefully to sleepovers, and participate in overnight camps, all without an ounce of parental concern.
But those times are past (meaning long since over) now. We are a sadder but wiser society. The knowledge we have about child molesters has come at a heavy cost, and is often shared by people out of the pain of their personal experiences. It’s time we heeded this information and do all we can to protect children.
You hear all those stories of cliques and the popular people. There’s a group of them in almost every school. And then of course, there’s everyone else. Everyone else would usually fit into two basic categories: the ones who completely hate them, and the ones who would do absolutely anything to be a part of them. Luckily, that doesn’t happen all the time. When you are everyone else, there’s no median or go-between within the groups. When you happen to be a hater, you are disliked as well.
It’s simple, and the whole “You don’t like me? I don’t like you” makes for good drama. And when you’re a worshiper — well, you are hated, too. There is something about the stalking and strange obsessions that turn the “in-crowd” to hatred.
Almost every teenager has been the victim and the predator — the one who taunts and the one who is humiliated. It can’t be helped. But as for those who are different, they must somehow have to be punished, because that is the society of high school. And those who befriend the different, and are different themselves, are lower than the low in the eyes of judgemental teenagers.
And the social ladder is a frustrating thing. The popular students control the student body — or at least they try to, because some of the students have had it with being mean to others. Instead, they try being both popular and nice at the same time.
However, it’s not always like that. The ones below the popularity circle listen — listen and nothing else.
What are your thoughts on popularity and being popular?
