10:21 PM Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Ask a random kid today if she wants to be popular and she'll tell you no, even if the truth is that if she was in a desert dying of thirst and had the choice between a glass of water and instant popularity, she'd probably choose the latter. See, you can't admit to wanting it, because that makes you less cool. To be truly popular, it has to look like something you are, when in reality, it's what you make yourself.
I wonder if anyone ever works any harder at anything that kids do at being popular. I mean, even air-traffic controllers and the President of the United States take vacations, but look at your average high school student, and you'll see someone who's putting in time twenty-four hours a day, for the entire length of the school year.
So how do you crack that inner-sanctum? Well here's the catch: it's not up to you. What's important is what everyone else thinks of how you dress, what you eat for lunch, what shows you TiVo, what music is in your iPod.
I've always sort of wondered, though: if everyone else's opinion is what matters, then do you ever really have one of your own?