All I Would Ever Need

        I had always felt like a misfit in school.  My friends,
   although good and true friends, were not in the crowd of
   popular kids in school.  Besides, I was sure I was funny
   looking.  I just didn't fit the mold.
        Parading constantly before my eyes was "the fun group"
   - the popular kids - always laughing and whispering, never
   sad or depressed, skipping their way through school, the
   best of friends.  Teachers loved them, boys loved them, the
   whole school loved them.  I worshipped them and wanted to be
   just like them.  I dreamed of the day that they would accept
   me.
        My dream came true when I turned fourteen and I tried
   out for the cheerleading squad.  To my surprise, I was
   chosen.  Almost instantly, I was thrust into the "in crowd."
   I felt like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon.  I changed
   my hair and the way I dressed.  Everyone thought the change
   in me was fantastic - new clothes, a new group of friends
   and a new outlook on life.
        Almost overnight, the whole school knew who I was, or
   at least they knew my name.  There were parties and
   sleepovers, and of course, cheering at the games.  I was
   finally one of the popular kids.  Everyone I had hoped to
   know, I knew.  Everything I had wanted to be, I was.
        Something strange was happening to me, however. The
   more I was included with the "in crowd," the more confused I
   became.  In reality, these people were far from perfect.
   They talked behind each other's backs while they pretended
   to be best friends.  They rarely had a truly good time but
   smiled and faked it. They cared about what I was wearing
   and who I was seen with.  But they didn't care about who I
   was, what I believed in, what my dreams were or what made me
   who I was.  It was a shock to see them as they really were,
   instead of as I had "thought" they were.
        I began to feel a huge sense of loss and
   disappointment.  But worst of all, I realized that I was
   becoming just like them, and I didn't like what was
   happening at all.  I had to get my life back in order.
        I concentrated first on finding out who my real friends
   were - the ones who listened and who really cared about me.
   They were the only ones who really mattered. I stayed with
   cheerleading because I really enjoyed it.  But I stopped
   hanging around with only the popular kids, and I widened my
   circle of friends.  I found out that my real friends had
   never left me.  They were simply waiting for me to come to
   my senses.  I finally realized that my original friends were
   all I would ever need.