One day, I was at the mall with my family. My mom, my brother, and I were at Charlotte Russe, and I was trying to find some new clothes for school. There were tons of clothes-shirts, pants, jackets, sweaters, even shoes, hats, jewelry, and sunglasses. There were also tons of clothes that I loved. Clothes that were not too expensive, fit me well, and that my mom and my brother were encouraging me to buy. Clothes that I loved. Clothes that I did not buy.

Do you know what stopped me? I was worried about what people would think. I knew that if I wore those clothes to school the next day, people would judge me. They wouldn’t say things to my face, or even to their friends, but I would be able to tell by the looks I would get that they were labeling me. Labeling and judging me by the clothes I was wearing.

There are tons of cliques in different schools, or ways to categorize people. You could say they are preps, jocks, goths, nerds, geeks, and dorks. There are tons of more ways that people label each other. There should only be one label: human.

We are all humans, but some people act like that’s not the case. Some people think that just because someone is a prep, or a dork, or a goth, that they are different than them. Yes, there will be some differences, maybe even a lot, but there will always be at least one similarity. Human. Every person on our Earth is a human. And just because someone wears certain clothes, or acts a certain way, or hangs out with certain people, or gets certain grades, doesn’t mean that labels who they are.

People act like it is impossible to have a prep and a dork to be friends. Just think about two people in your school. One that you would label as a prep, and one as a dork. Now, at school, do they seem like friends? I think I can answer that for you. No. But out of school, they might hang out all the time. Probably not, but just think of that possibility. It is possible for two different people to be friends.

Another issue is name calling because of what people do. IF you like to read, you get called a dork. If you like science, you get called a geek, or a nerd. IF you like to wear the color black, you get called goth. If you play lots of sports, you get called a jock. If you seem sort of out of it all the time, you could get called a druggie.

People judge others ALL the time. I will admit that even I do that sometimes too. But it is not all right. If you go through life judging and labeling people before you even meet them, you are never going to meet a good variety of people. If you see someone dressed in black and you think to yourself, “Ew, they’re goth. They must be so weird,” you will never get to know them. You will never get to find out how they really are.

Maybe one day, you won’t judge someone and they could turn out to be the best friend you’ve ever had. Or maybe you’re usually the one being judged. If so, then maybe one day someone will walk up to you and introduce themselves, and you might have a new friend.

Maybe one day, there won’t be cliques in school. And it will seem possible for a prep-type person and a dork-type person to be friends. Not just friends at home where they’re hidden, but friends at school, too, for all the other kids to see. Maybe one day, you can change your style of clothes and not be judged. One day you could wear clothes from Hollister then the next from Hot Topic, and people wouldn’t think twice about it. Maybe one day, that will be possible.

Maybe, one day. That’s what we all say. But it can only happen one day if you change. If you stop judging people by the clothes they wear, the people they hang out with, or by the grades they earn.

One day, the only label for someone will be human. But that will only happen if you want that to happen. If you want the people in our world to be fair to others. If you change. If you want to change, then we will reach the day when you can look at a person who wears all black, and a person who wears all pink, and think of both of them, human.