I am a senior in a high school in a small town. We have all known each other since we were babies. You may think that this situation would be fun but it is quite the opposite. Everyone knows everything about everyone. No one has secrets because people will do anything to drag others down to make themselves feel and look better.

     In the movies, being the prom queen or king and being on a varsity sports team makes you popular. The reality is the if you are deemed attractive in the eyes of the media’s beauty standards then that makes you likable. For the rest of us who aren’t “traditionally” pretty, we are left behind and forgotten about. The one thing that those movies got right were the parties and the cliques.

     If you aren’t invited to the parties being through by the people at your school, you are not anywhere close to be popular. The cliques of this generations are absolutely ridiculous. If people don’t like the way you dress because it’s more edgy then they’re used to then you better get used to being called “emo”. If you harm yourself and it is visible at school then you are labeled “weird”. This is due to the lack of real world education at the schools. We need to teach the kids that some people struggle more than others and need help but don’t know how to ask for it. We need to learn how to just be nice to each other.

     My sophomore year I was called a “whore” in my gym class by some random senior because he was asking me and my friends to send him nudes and we said no. Things like that happen all of the time with young girls. Children need to be taught to not go to name calling when they are angry. Some people are more sensitive than others and you never know what someone is going through.

    The moral of this submission is that high schools are a very toxic place and we need to do more as a society to teach children at a younger age to just be nice to each other and teach them tolerance. Treat people with kindness.