I’ve never really understood what the term popular means. It changes I guess. When you’re in Elementary school, popular is being able to play whatever game was played at that particular school. At my school, it was 4-square and Off the Wall. But in Middle school, popular changes. Drastically. In Middle school, popular is,for girls dressing a certain way and being part of those 1 or 2 groups of people in the hallway or in the center of town. The same goes for guys except the big thing is playing sports. And no matter what, you have to be invited to things. That never changes.Parties,lunch tables, even groups in class. But I don’t believe in that. It’s ridiculous, and quite frankly, stupid. I believe in weirdness.

Now, I’m not saying that popularity itself is bad. It’s perfectly fine. What’s not fine, is people changing who they are to be popular. My first day of 6th grade represents this perfectly. On the first day of 6th grade I panicked. People who I had known for years were...different. Hanging out with different cliques and doing different things. Suddenly things that I did weren’t okay. My friends, how I dressed, it was all wrong. The lunchroom was probably the worst. I swear when you walked in, you need a map.Everyone had a certain table that they sat in.No changes. I wanted to throw up. The lunchroom was the last straw. That day, I came home crying. And I’ll never forget that feeling. That feeling that every single thing that I did was wrong. But after a while, and a talk with my parents, I learned that what I was doing wasn’t bad. Their wasn’t anything bad about it.

The word weird comes from the Middle English word werd; akin to the Norse word urthr, which translates to control fate. That means that weird is getting to chose what you do. Weird is not being a clone or a copy of someone else. Weird is getting to love and get excited about your interests. Weird isn’t what people think it is. Weird can be awesome, not awful.

The author Dr.Seuss has a famous quote. “We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love” This quote really sums it all up. It shouldn’t mater how you act or what you like to do, because someone will always have a similar interest. And even if they don’t, people will still like you. It doesn’t mater what you do.

Weird or not, people don’t have to change who they are to fit in. And popularity shouldn’t have to be about being a clone of another person. Because I believe in weirdness. And that’s my choice.Not yours.