D'Arvit

“Hi. I’m Girl A, the clubmate of the busmate of the neighbor of the cousin of the sister of the ‘Ka-Legacy’ (to the fifth degree) of Girl B. Do you know Girl B?”

You stare at her as if she was out of her mind. She made that fifth-degree connection to you as if she were just browsing friends at Friendster™. But then again, come to think of it, fifth-degree connections at Friendster™ are not allowed. Despite your brain’s raging outcry over all this folly, you still manage to blurt out a reply:

“Yeah… I know Girl B… But I don’t know YOU.” There. You’ve stated your point.
But apparently, the giddy stranger missed it.

“Well… I’m Girl A. There. Now you know who I am.” Then, with a slight wave and a semi-curtsy, she walks off feeling that you’re her new best friend. Now that she is (more or less) acquainted with one of the upperclassmen (i.e. YOU), she feels as if she’s the most popular girl in school. She’s “in”… She’s “accepted”… by her own standards, at least.
Watching too much American high school chick-flicks or reading too much Sweet Valley High must have obviously damaged our brains cells; thus, distorting our views on high school life and the role ”popularity” plays in it. Conversations similar to the one above have been getting more common nowadays. Most kids believe that the main objective of a high school student is “to get popular…NOW!”—a notion, I once had believed, that was left crumbling in the ruins in that faraway place we once knew as grade school.
I guess I was wrong.

I honestly could not believe that there are still people who think that being popular or being cool in high school is the best way to define their future. I was told that some students think that the first two years of high school are their “make or break” years. These first two years would determine whether or not they would be “accepted” in the high school “it” crowd [*note: I had no idea that there is an “it” crowd in the first place!]. This is the point when they would know if they’re considered “in” or otherwise, be forever labeled as “outcasts”.

Populars and outcasts? Is this the very essence of high school life? Talk to any college student—or just anyone who survived high school unscathed—and that person will tell you that high school is not all that. And I definitely agree. Who gave us the idea of popular girls (or mean girls), nerds, jocks, and cheerleaders? Who gave us the idea that high school is such a mean and hateful place where everyone would scrutinize your every move and laugh at your every mistake? Who gave us the idea that in order to survive high school, you “have to be popular”? And please, for the sake of you and me, are you even capable of giving me the exact definition of the word “popular”?

If you’re going to this school each day in order to throw away a huge amount of money for such a shallow motivation, then I suggest that you go and transfer to another school where you’re the “it” girl: a big fish in a small pond. You did not study in Miriam for the sole purpose of becoming a “cool girl”. If your parents wanted you to be a “cool girl”, they should have enrolled you at a beauty/modeling school instead.