By Aster
There are a lot of different factors that influence whether or not you fit in. Our society today is very complicated to fit in, its not just what you do but it is also what you wear, designer clothes, the way you act, social media, etc. Basically, to fit in you have to have money, or at least look like you do.
Me personally it was complicated to fit in. It was very hard not to be influenced to do something when everybody else around me was doing it. The day I realized all of this was the first day of 10th grade. I walked in the hallway and everybody was hugging each other, taking pictures, nobody was even worried about class. Then the bell rang and everybody went their separate ways. I walked into my class and saw lots of people just talking to each other. A couple people got up to come say hi to me and the first thing they were paying attention to was the way I was dressed and the type of shoes I had on. They looked me up and down to notice what I had on. Luckily I already knew what to wear based on what was fashionable and how to fit in and what I noticed 9th grade year, so I felt good. But that day got me thinking, what if I didn’t look right or fit in the way I was “supposed” to? Then was nobody going to talk to me? Everything was just set up on materialistic things, nothing was as important and you would never know who’s really your friend.
The other really bad thing about fitting in is when it comes to drugs. I knew so many people in middle school that would always tell me that it was very stupid and useless to do drugs but once they got into high school, everything changed. Its like everything they said they weren’t going to do they did. One day I was curious on why they changed so quick so I went up to my one friend that was close to me a while back and I asked her how everything was and how she was doing. She replied to me “good.” I’m the type of person that likes to get to the point so I asked her straight up. I asked her what made her change, she said to me quickly “its not like it’s a problem, everybody does it”. That’s when I realized why she was doing everything she was doing. The hard part isn’t saying no to whatever it was, but it was the idea that you’re not doing what others are. In our society, there are so many assumptions about how teenagers act and so it’s very easy to feel like you know how your teenage years are going to go. An adult will tell you when you enter high school “be careful, make wise choices and try your best not to be influenced”. Because that’s just how society is set for teenagers. In my opinion, if you know who you are and what you want in your future, you’re not going to mess up, just pick wisely whom you surround yourself with.