3 days till the end...June 6, 2011

The 8th Grade Observers 4th to last tip of the day...

Everyone who comes into middle school is on equal playing fields. From the moment you get up on that first day of school to the time you get off the bus you could be a scene kid, or popular, or a stoner or a brain. 

The problem is you don't have that big of a say in the whole matter. You can dress how you want and act the part, but you've been cast as soon as you step through the double doors. And somehow that's okay. 

Eighth grade is different. The people know you, even if you don't know you. The teachers have already whispered their judgments in the teachers lounge and the object is no longer simply to fit in, as it was above, when it didn't matter what you were as long as you were something. 

This time you want to be cool. Its a different game with the same, stale players. And the rules can't really be manipulated. You can't take  off your glasses and let down your pony tail and turn into Reese Witherspoon. And walking down the hall with your friends isn't like linking arms with Regina George. 

The moments aren't 'firsts' anymore and while the means of getting it may be unique, the object isn't. 

Whats cool? 

Is it writing a blog?

Or reading a blog?

Is it wearing tight pants or baggy ones?

Should you color your hair like a unicorns crap or tie ribbons in it?

Take the quote-'Beauty must be defined as what we are, or else the concept itself is our enemy'

This is true obviously, if you add in there between 'are and 'or.' 

The same is true for 'cool.'

But even more true than that is that cool is not caring what cool is. 

Its tired and old but this advice is like your favorite sweatshirt.

Have faith in 'cool' being something, not earned, but thrust upon us after forgetting entirely what it is. 

There's a girl in my class, Bertha, who may be the coolest person I have ever met. She likes her music and her clothes and shes nice, but isn't aggressive and, my god, shes the coolest person I have ever met. 

I hope I'm like her one day, because as you can probably tell, this is hard advice to take. Even for me.

I'm not telling you to let your nails grow out like the hall monitor, Ms.Cookie, or pick at scabs in class or anything.

I'm saying that if, or more correctly when, you do something that you regret. Something petty and insignificant like saying the wrong thing to your crush or getting a late on a homework. Don't treat it like anything more than what it is. Because when you look back at sixth grade what you 'were' won't even come to mind and in eighth, trust me when I say 'cool' will be entirely different and no one, not even your self is going to remember what you said that made you cry when you got home or what you did that was sooo embarrassing. 

Until tomorrow my Croc wearers.