The Price of Popularity

It’s funny that in researching this subject I came across some rather interesting information on the internet of how to actually become popular. I hate to say it but for all of you who think there is some magic formula out there that will instantly make your popularity peak – think again!

I am proud to say that I have never been considered one of the so-called popular kids (poppies) in school nor would I want to be. You have to dress a certain way, talk a certain way, act a certain way, smell a certain way, walk a certain way, and even eat a certain way. My God! I think it must be exhausting to maintain that social persona 24/7. Personally, I enjoy staying just below the radar; however, I do find it fascinating how one is accepted into the ranks of the ‘Social Elite’.

Due to the nature of my mother’s job and the traveling we have done over the years I have been the ‘newbie’ at several different schools many times over. The one thing that I can tell you without a doubt that is prevalent in all of these schools is the class system, and by that I don’t mean the grade you are in. Social status seems to play a huge roll in school, and seems to be the most important thing in the lives of many teenagers that I know. The one thing I still don’t understand, however, is the fact that most of the poppies as I call them are not even very nice people and are not even liked by that many people. So, why do kids in school persist in maintaining the popularity status of other kids they don’t even like? Well, I have a theory: It’s simply all about power and control.

Power and control is something most kids don’t have at home – all the power is in the hands of their parents and social status is reduced to that of an extremely well-kept prisoner at best. Having spent sixteen hours of being told what to do everyday, they will spend the next eight hours in school breaking out of that roll. It then becomes a battle of social will at school.

Although there are many cliques in school, popularity status can easily be broken down into three groups: the Haves, the Will-Nots, and the Wannabes. The Haves are already poppies and spend all their time trying to maintain their social status. Appearances become very important to them, and they will belittle other kids just to try and make themselves look better. Survival in the real world is difficult for poppies, because their whole world revolves around being who they are in school. The Will-Nots are different in that they have a life outside of the social bubble that exists in school. They don’t have that popularity status nor do they want it. The Wannabes on the other hand are probably the largest group as well as the saddest. I say they are the saddest because without even realizing it, they are what maintains the power behind the poppies. They are so consumed with climbing the social ladder to popularity that they would never dare to defy one of the poppies. You can never miss a wannabe in school – they will always be found following at least two steps behind a poppie.

Probably one of the most pathetic examples I’ve seen of a wannabe involved a situation where Wannabe’s mom was just as desperate as she was to make her a poppie. It started years ago when we were in grammar school and Wannabe’s mom ordered over $1000 worth of Girl Scout cookies just so her daughter could say she sold the most. A year later it starting getting worse when Wannabe’s mom announced she was giving away MP3 players as party favors just to get kids to show up at her daughter’s birthday party.

As summer approached I decided to take a class in math at a learning center just to maintain my skills since math has always been my toughest subject. It was in a different town, because our town did not offer such a class. On my first day I was surprised to find that Wannabe was there. Never giving it a second thought, however, I sat down and attempted to begin my work when I was continuously interrupted by Wannabe. It seems that she was so preoccupied with the fact that I knew she was in summer school that she could not focus on the work. She persistently requested that I not tell anyone I saw her there – she did not want anyone to think she was dumb. Oh! I’m sorry, maybe I was naïve, but I was not aware that summer school made you look stupid! I did not see her again after that first day and found out later that her mom snatched her out the second she found out I was there.

As Wannabe was about to enter middle school her mom suddenly became the cheerleading coach in what was to be a failed attempt to make her daughter a cheerleader. Funny though how her mom became a cheerleading coach when she was never a cheerleader herself. It seems her high school career consisted of playing an instrument in the marching band. I’m not an expert but somehow I don’t think that translates into cheerleader.

Now that Wannabe is fourteen the situation has gotten completely out of control. Although I don’t live there anymore, I have family members that still do, mainly my stepbrothers; and I like to keep up with what is going on with them. Not so long ago my dad was attempting to call my fifteen year old stepbrother on his cell phone and did not reach him, so he left a voicemail. A little while later my stepbrother returned the call, but lucky for him my dad was on the phone at the time. When my dad played back the voicemail it was complete gibberish. Well, it was pretty obvious that my stepbrother was incoherent and completely snockered. Living two-thousand miles away from the situation was difficult for my dad, but his investigative skills kicked into high gear. Before the night was over he found out where my brother was, who he was with and who had purchased alcohol for him.

If you have guessed that it was Wannabe’s mom that supplied the booze you would be right. Not only did she take a party of underage teens somewhere they were not supposed to be, she supplied them with the alcohol as well. By the time my stepbrother’s mom was done chewing out Wannabe’s mom she had no cheeks left to her already flat broad-bottomed derriere.

I think that Wannabe’s mom will stop at nothing to make her daughter popular in the eyes of the other teens at school. She has a long history of backstabbing and undermining in her feeble attempts to make her daughter popular. It is kind of scary actually, because it reminds me of that story in Texas years ago when another Wannabe’s mom hired a hit man to kill the popular girl’s mom so that she would be too devastated to try out for cheerleader. Well, as Wannabe enters the ninth grade this year we will certainly follow-up and see how this saga plays out. As for the price of popularity, not for me - I think the stakes a way too high, and I’m not willing to pay for it.