You’ve heard of In-Crowds, right? Every school has them, even Catholic schools, where they used to make kids wear uniforms, form lines and try to look pious. Some kids just naturally fall into the Cool category. Others fall somewhere on the borderline between Cool and Neutral.
I was not one of those kids. I was definitely part of the Out-Crowd. I don’t know if you could call us a crowd, exactly. At the most, there were two or three of us at a time. We were the ones that even the nerds didn’t want to hang around with. I use the word crowd for convenience, because I can’t think of anything better and because it sounds clever.
I was so “out,” the other kids needed field glasses to see me.
One of the advantages was that I never suffered that peer pressure thing. My classmates didn’t care if I conformed or not, as long as I didn’t try to hang around with them. A lot of pressure is taken off a teenage girl if she knows that she’d never make cheerleader or be asked to the prom and there’s no use thinking about it. I could put my mind to getting angst over other things, instead.
I was not actively hated; I was just ignored most of the time. I guess this was good. I didn’t end up bringing a gun to school and shooting people. I couldn’t have done that, anyway. I’m a big marshmallow by nature and I hate violence. I can’t kill a bug without feeling like a murderer. In addition, I didn’t have access to any weapons. My Mom wouldn’t even allow my brother to have a BB gun. I don’t think a badminton racket would have done the job.
Besides, I was a good Catholic girl. Shooting people was a mortal sin, and if someone shot me back and killed me I would get an express ride to Hell, where I would be stuck for eternity, without air-conditioning. We heard a lot about Hell in religion classes, and it always struck me as a place you would not choose for a vacation.
I turned out pretty well, considering. I became an opera singer, which was highly satisfying. When everything is working well and you are singing really great music, singing opera is almost orgasmic. And when you are onstage singing your heart and lungs out, nobody is ignoring you. That’s a good part, too.
Now I’m trying to be a writer. I’ll be sure to let everyone know how that comes out.
I know few people who were not the “outs” Even today, outcasts… It’s cool to be the outside ones I think.
Dweebs and humor writers: the new Cool Kids!
You already are a writer and this is written very well.
When I was in school, I was pretty much the same but I wasn’t a teenage girl. Every now and again, I would take the blame for something that someone else done. The bullies couldn’t figure out why I’d do this so they just left me alone and the kool kids where the same. That had the desired effect and that was the very reason I would do it.
Gee, I have now gotten two compliments on my writing in one week! Thanks for the vote of confidence.
How often do you hear of a popular kid who becomes famous for something or other? We are the ones who become actors, opera singers, writers and scientists. Being ignored during our formative years gave us a lot of time to explore the really interesting stuff.
We didn’t have any “Pink Ladies” in our Catholic school, of course, which was for the best. The nuns would have discouraged that kind of interest.