This past week coming back to the town I grew up in made me do a lot of thinking. It made me realize that the "popular" kids in high school were popular because no one dared not being cool by telling them otherwise. They were not popular because they were the most beautiful or the nicest or the most down to earth, they were popular because high school kids follow each other around like mindless sheep.

Which made me realize how far I’ve come since high school. I myself was one of the mindless sheep joining the herd, worshiping the "popular" kids and trying to mimic their every action. I would purposely hang out around the popular kids, not because I liked them, but because of the image it gave me; if I were to hang out with certain "popular" kids it would make me more popular than if I hung out with the people I actually wanted to hang out with.

America has become an industry of trendiness. Americans are now conceited with a sense of materialism. No longer is it sexy to be a 4.0 student with good looks and a nice personality. America is about Britney Spears, just having enough intelligence to not look stupid on television and having a fake looking body. It is about belly-button rings, low-cut jeans, having brand-name sneakers, MTV and not doing anything outside the norm.

I’m now 21 years old and it has taken me almost three years since I left high school to figure out why, and until now all I could come up with is this. In my opinion an average 18-20 year old person believes they have to fit in, it is against the norm if you don’t. They don’t think to challenge what everyone is doing, they just believe that they should follow the herd.

People who challenge the norm or do something out of the ordinary are shunned by their peers. When I was in high school people who were not "normal" were ridiculed. They were picked on until they had no other choice but to join the "norm." They were picked on and joked about till they gave in. It turns out that these people were the people that everyone should be following, they were the trailblazers. I’m sure it was one hundred times harder not to fit, than it was for one of the "popular" kids.

It amazes me even to this day how some college students have to have the coolest clothes and have to be at the trendy hangout or the trendy party. When I see this I often wonder what it must be like to live like that. It has to be a shallow life. I can’t imagine walking around 24 hours a day pretending to be someone that you aren’t and doing things you don’t want to do just so other people will have a better impression of you.

I have taken the values I have learned from this and applied them to my life. I no longer feel the need to fit in. I hang out with the people I want to hang out with not because other people think it’s cool but because I like to. I would like to leave this bit of advice to teenagers. Take a look at the friends you have now and ask yourself if you were at your lowest, would your friend cheer you up? Look at your friends and ask yourself if you were paralyzed in the hospital, would they come to visit you? Look at your friends and ask if I were to make a mistake and do something I regretted, would you hold it against me? Look at your friends and ask if they would ever forget about you.

If you truthfully answer these questions there should be no question whether they are your real friends.