To “The Cool Kids,”

Despite what you may think, and contrary to the Echosmith song, not all of us wish that we could be like the cool kids. The popularity that engulfs your every being isn’t what we aspire to be. Yes, it would be nice to wake up with our makeup done and hair curled into luscious barrels of perfection, but let us be honest with ourselves, you don’t wake up like that, either. And we’re not saying that your looks don’t take talent and effort. If we knew how to contour our faces and create cheekbones out of nothing, we would do it. But we don’t, so we’ll leave the makeup brushes and hot pink nail polish to you.

It’s funny, we all started out in same kindergarten classes, peewee soccer leagues and Girl Scout troops. We had play dates at the park while our moms sat and chatted about the latest recall on mini vans. We might have even considered one another “best friends” at some point. And then the preteens hit. Kids started to care about their reputation and began selecting only the skinniest girls with the best side ponytails to be in the clique and the rest of us simply faded into the background. At first, we were probably hurt that we didn’t get picked to be a part of the social stardom, but it was a long time ago. Looking back at it know, it’s kind of comical, really.

So then began the rest of our lives, or so we all thought. As much as we might have been heartbroken that you landed a spot in the popularity contest, we learned to love the role that we filled. Sure, we were called losers and whatever else was on the menu of insulting words that day, but we didn’t care. We brushed it off without a problem, because we had each other. Now there’s a misconception that all wallflowers cling together and form a pact and we just sit back and laugh at the pathetic lives of everyone else. Contrary to popular belief, we don’t. Our lives are just as pathetic and uneventful as the next person and we don’t all cling together. We all found our three or four friends and realized they were all we needed. We learned to laugh at our own insecurities and embrace it when you did, too. We became free spirts and enjoyed the fact that drama didn’t hold us back. And we looked forward, knowing that our lives wouldn’t always be like this way and maybe shed a tear or two when we had to move on, because we loved the lives that we all lived.

We’ve all gone our separate ways now and most days, you don’t even cross our minds. But here is to the days of pretending we didn’t know each other, acting like we didn’t know anything about one another and not pretending we had kept up on each others lives when we awkwardly ran into each other at the grocery store.

Here’s to the Cool Kids, we couldn’t be the wallflowers we are without you.

Sincerely,

The Wallflowers