#pizitz

Who is going into 6th grade. She is a little plumper than most, and still has that elementary school style of t-shirts and shorts that don't fit right, and that haircut that your mom thought would make you the cutest little thing, but actually doesn't make you look any cuter at all to your peers. She also happens to be really good friends with her mom. But moms are moms and, when your mom tells you that you are special and your peers don't know what they are talking about, are you really going to believe her? She talks like her mother, and acts like her mother, and all around, she just isn't like other girls her age. She came to me, lip quivering, asking what middle school was like. I told her, middle school is where the girls who were best friends in elementary school become worst enemies and boys start to grow one ball, but the other is still on hold. She told me about how she had only been invited over one time to a friends house since school had been let out for summer, and was told everyone from her elementary school class thought she was weird. My cousin, not even in middle school yet, is worried about being popular. 

Middle school is that stupid age where popularity is the center of your concerns. And talking about people is all people talk about. Its as if nothing else in the world exists but you and the people at your school. The fact of the matter is, no one in middle school is popular or cool or famous. You can know so and so in high school or college or whatever, but fact of the matter is, nobody cares. You can wear super thick make up to hide where your hand quivered and screwed up your eyeliner, but it still looks bad. No matter what you do in middle school, the rest of the world, doesn't care. 

One day all middle schoolers become high schoolers, and its not like that middle school  popularity look at me I'm so cool bullshit ends over night either. Some people lose it, but most people remain the cocky self centered pain in the asses they were in middle school throughout their freshman year at least. Over the course of freshman year, people start to change. I don't know what it is, but people change. The "popular" girls from middle school suddenly are clinging onto everything they can grasp to save their social standings, which includes getting drunk off their asses, sleeping around, continuing their bitchy put downs of other girls, fighting, flirting with another girls boyfriend, it ranges. But, people are changing, and people realize who these girls are, and that they really have no intrinsic value. And suddenly, those girls that "had it all" in middle school, are the ones who are left with nothing but the used condom on their bedroom floor.

So ultimately, popularity in middle school gets you no where. You were a bitch to all of those girls for nothing, and the people who liked you so that you wouldn't bitch about them (even though you did anyway) won't like you because they found someone who actually cares.

Another thing my cousin was worried about is friends. She was told by a girl (that bitch) that she is weird and no one likes her. 

Here is the deal. In elementary school, you have your class, thats it. You are stuffed in a room with 25 other kids, and you sit there all day. You really have no say in who you are friends with. Your options are 1-24 (take out yourself) make your choice and move on. Of course, teachers encourage you to get along with everyone, cause that definitely lasts through puberty. You may have nothing in common with your friends in elementary school, but you are friends with them anyway, because you have no other options. And thats just how the cookie crumbles.

Once you move up to middle school (making progress!), your poole expands a little bit. You have your 8 classes a day, with roughly 20 kids in each class, and 5-10 people exchanging between classes. So instead of 24 other kids to choose from, you now have about 40-60 kids to choose from to be your friends. Then chances of you finding someone like you are much greater in that group than in your elementary class of 25. You are going to have at least one really good friend that you will have in middle school. If you don't, I'm sorry, that really sucks, and I find that really hard to believe, but if its true my condolences. Thats really all you need. But try to be nice to people no matter what, people will remember it. Just keep your head low, and keep going.

High school is a whole nother world in comparison. You have 4 classes a day, with 15-30 people in each class. Most of these people will change with every single class. You will have maybe 3-7 people that you have repeat classes with. Your options in people to talk to and be friends with are so broad. You are bound to find a couple of people that you get along with great. Of course, it may take a while for the middle school mentality to wear off of everyone, there is someone that you mesh with well probably.

College. Oh college. In college, classes don't really even matter. You have 1 MAYBE 2 people with the same classes (this changes as you start taking more classes in your major). And you have anywhere from 2-8 classes a semester. In college, its all about what you do and who you talk to and who you meet. You really just have to put yourself out there. Join a club, talk to people in your dorm, chill out in an eno with some people. But really, you have like 15000-50000 people to choose from. Just do whatever.