Popular (adj.) - liked, admired, or enjoyed by many people or by a particular person or group.
Personally, I don't believe this is true. Every "popular" person I've ever known is only liked by their fellow popular friends.
To sum up, nobody likes the popular kids except themselves.
Urban Dictionary defines popular as "A group of teenagers in high school that for some reason are mysteriously known as the most important kids in the school, usually without the rest of the student bodies knowledge as to how and when this even happened...more often than not the ''popular'' kids are either rich, good looking, involved heavily in school and especially in the athletics department, funny, snobby, uninterested in the ''non-chosen ones'' (or mean to them), or a combination of any of the above."
When I was in first grade, I was sitting at my desk and the boy next to me was talking to the boy next to him. They were talking about a popular boy in the class across the hall. "He's so cool," they said. And it was like the label fairy came down and said "Yup, you have to be cool now, no exceptions. Sorry." Being in first grade, the only idea of popularity I had was from the movies I had seen. And when you're six years old, "Land Before Time" and "Elmo in Grouchland" don't touch down on topics like that.
I was extremely confused. In those movies, they teach you that everybody is friends and you should always get along. They also teach you to be open-minded and that everybody is equal. How could somebody be popular if we're all the same?
The boys talked about this kid as if he was the reincarnation of Christ himself. We were 6, how great could he have possibly been? But low and behold, he was popular until the day he graduated high school. I guess he's still considered popular (but not in my book).
He was the golden child. Every boy wanted to be him, every parent wanted him as their son, and every girl wanted him to have their son. Honestly, I never found him that attractive. After being in school with this boy for 12 years I finally wondered why he was even so spectacular to begin with. It was first grade. Who decided he could be the best?
As years went on, the popular clique grew. By fifth grade, it was about 10 boys and 10 girls. By the end of middle school, it was about 30 boys and 15 girls. And by the end of high school, it was about 40 boys and 20 girls.
Unfortunately, none of these people were actually good people. I want to say there are, but they aren't. They're self-absorbed, materialistic, and only think about themselves. They're mean and believe they are better than everyone around them. The worst part is that they think everybody wants to be like them. When in reality, nobody wants to even be in the same classroom/school/town as them.
The reason why this topic bugs me so much is because popularity is such a fabricated concept. Nobody is actually popular. Like Urban Dictionary said, nobody even knows how these people came about. Nobody claimed them as popular or forced them into it.
The only reason popularity is a maintained notion in our society is because we allow it to continue on from generation to generation. Saying somebody is "popular" is admitting that they are better than you are. You're accepting the fact that they are cooler, or more liked, or more known, and people like them more than they like you.
It's something that needs to be pushed away from everyday vocabulary. The definition of popular is to be liked and enjoyed by many people. Last time I checked, nobody likes or enjoys them. In the movies, they're seen as villains. They are always the antagonist. They cause the problems, they are the bullies, but somehow they never get in trouble. Parents like them, teachers like them, and coaches like them. They seem to be respected and adored by the people who don't actually know their true selves.
One thing that made me realize this was an encounter I had with a teacher my senior year of high school. I went to talk to her about some drama going on with a boy in my grade and my younger brother. I tried to explain to her that my brother was not in the wrong for what he did. Her response has stuck with me since, and it was truly appalling.
"Well, I don't know why he's going after a senior," she said, "you know, he's a great kid and he's very popular in this town".
A grown woman had said that to me. A woman who preached that everybody was equal when I had her as a teacher the previous year. She made a point that nobody is better than anyone else, no matter what.
She is the biggest hypocrite I have ever met in my life. Her words still echo in the back of my head. I wanted to grab her shoulders and shake them. This so-called "great kid," was the biggest narcissist ever. He used girls, he did drugs, and he drank, a lot. But she didn't know that. He was an angel to her and all the other staff at the school. But that's how it always went with kids like him. The fact that he was "popular" excused him from being in the wrong.
The thing that bothers me most about this topic is that those kids will never change. They were raised with those morals and ideas. They are just like their parents and their kids will be just like them too.
Growing up in an all-white suburbia in Connecticut, definitely did not help the situation. We lived in a town where everybody had to have everything. It was a fairly wealthy town. I wouldn't compare it to anything further than what a suburb actually is. We didn't have old money and it wasn't the Upper East Side.
People had their basic colonial houses with their pools in the backyard and finished basement where there could kids could drink cheap vodka and make a couple of Snapchat stories. Their cars were all company owned or bought used (except they didn't tell people that). People were up to their ears in credit card debt to keep up with the materialistic ways of the town we lived in.
Every girl had to have the Longchamp bag and the Michael Kors watch, and every guy had to have 20 pairs of Nike sneakers and a closet full of Vineyard Vines.
These were the popular ones. With all the money and all the fun toys. I knew a kid that drove a brand new Range Rover at age 16 (obviously completely normal).
It's all so fake. The clothes, the cars, the houses, the parties. Money can't buy you happiness but it can sure as hell make you the coolest kid around (eye roll).
Being a genuine person is one of the best things you can be and having one good friend is better than having 35 fake ones. Moving through life, you realize what matters most. It's not the car you drive or how many beach houses you have. Not everybody realizes that, and it's truly a sad thing to watch.
Don't ever let other people determine your own worth. Popularity is not real. Nobody is better than anybody else. Just remember that the next time you get jealous of the popular girl's life. Admitting they're better only hurts you in the long run.
You're just as good as them because you are real, and they are not.
