Focus on being yourself

When you walk around the courtyard, you can see a sea of diverse faces mingling with each other. But the more you look, the more you can see patterns between everyone, like girls wearing half-shirts or see-through shirts or guys sagging their pants. These trends are present in almost every clique in school.

High school is a place for growing. Everyone passes through many phases to find who they truly are. From punk to prep, these phases are a way of making these individuals stand out. But the irony is, the steps people take to individualize themselves are overshadowed by the fact we group ourselves with others who are just like us.

We fall into a crowd where no one stands out. And then the cycle starts again. We try so hard to make ourselves different that we end up blending in. A new trend will start and the first people who step out of their comfort zone become the trend-starters.

Many will begin to follow in their footsteps shortly after, and soon enough, we have trend epidemic spreading through the school like wildfire. Perhaps this is just how high school works, or just how society operates in general. But instead of putting so much effort into being different, we can redirect our precious energy to something else. It then becomes a new standard that everyone is expected to follow.

The truth is the half-shirts and see-through shirts are to be worn at the beach, when it is actually hot out. To the guys who sag, well there is a reason why the belt was invented. Is sacrificing clothing for a trend really worth it?

Each year brings along new trends and fads, but honestly none of it even looks comfortable.

Everybody wants to stand out though all we need to focus on is being ourselves. We are all unique, and if we act like ourselves, that’s enough to prove our  individuality. One thing to always remember is to just be yourself, and the rest will come.