From Queen-Bee to Wanna-Be
Writer's Name Withheld by Request
I don't think it's vain to say that I was the 'IT girl' as a kid. My peers envied me, my teachers loved me, and I could get away with anything. Of course, since I was only ten, I didn't do anything that bad.
Maybe I wasn't that 'IT girl.' Maybe it was all in my head. But those years of my life were definitely the best. I was smart, pretty, popular - people adored me.
And then things changed. Due to unfortunate circumstances, I had to change schools. I entered one of the most prestigious public schools in my area. Sure, it was a public school like my old school, but it was regarded as the best public school around.
I was terrified on my first day. I didn't know what to expect. But nothing could have prepared me for the torture that lay ahead. It was like walking in on one of those many American movies, the type that portrayed the popular girls as mean with the many cliques and even more outsiders.
At my old school, people were never mean (not to me, at least). And I never spoke a bad word to anyone. Now my teachers paid no attention to me, my peers were mean to me, and as I had just gotten glasses two months before starting at the school, I was instantly labeled a loser. I got used to it and ignored them, and I made a few friends, but I still hated the school.
After a while (about a year) I met a really cool girl who didn't care what others thought of her. Naturally, she and I became friends. But her devil-may-care attitude caught the eyes of what many know to be the 'A-crowd'. These were the very people (well, most of them anyway) who had made my first year in the school hell.
We all put the past behind us and hung out together. I may not have been Queen Bee anymore, but I had acceptance, and that was important to me back then ... even if I had to be like them, with a razor-sharp tongue. But these people weren't real friends. I watched as they badmouthed each other and spread malicious rumors. It was as if I was living in a real-life version of Gossip Girl.
When I crossed paths with one of their kind, a callous girl who unfortunately knew far too much about me, I was the next target of the rumor. Looking back, it really wasn't that bad of a rumor, and if I had handled it well enough I would probably still be friends with them.
But I didn't. No one wanted to stand up for me. It was then that I realized that these people weren't worth my time and their acceptance and approval wasn't something that I needed.
The next year we all split up. I got accepted to the best high school in the area, and they didn't. I was able to make real friends and gained acceptance ... simply by being myself.
This experience taught me how to recognize my true friends, and that popularity, no matter how appealing, isn't all it's cracked up to be.