Average

     At fifteen years old, I have the physical and mental maturity of a fifteen year old. Coming from attending high school, I see that everyone tries to stray away from average. No one wants to look exactly their age, they want to look younger and more innocent, or older and wiser. No one wants to have average intelligence, they want to have "above grade level" so that they have something to validate their boastful nature, or below so that there's something highly attainable to strive for.
     Everyone tries to be unique in their own special way, which in turn groups together bands of similarly unique self proclaimed individuals. The girls who are very athletic but care a lot about their appearance stick together in the cafeteria. The boys who try to start fashion trends with corduroy shorts and bow ties tote North Face backpacks around the halls. The friends who listen to popular alternative music and giggle about cats anxiously await the bell that dismisses them from band class.
     You see, every time one person stands out, they are apt to fall back in again with people following their trends and ideas. This has been going on seemingly since the beginning of teenage history. It's why we're not still wearing bell bottom jeans and perms. It's why Nike sneakers and Katy Perry are popular. Someone decided that they were bored with what they had and they needed change.
     If you ever stop and think where what you're doing came from, if you thought it was your idea, it probably wasn't. I don't wear floral print dresses because I feel like it, I wear them because they are very available and looked good on someone else before me. I don't use the word "ace" instead of "cool" because I invented the word, I use it because a character in a book used it and I thought it was cool.
     Competition also feeds into this system. If I feel that someone is trying to out-unique me, I will find another component of myself to draw out to make me not just a copy. I will thicken my eyeliner as a type of war paint and let out a battle cry of folk music.
       Everyone does this, and if you don't, you're probably just another liar.