Popularity doesn’t exist. It is a social phenomenon that has been created in school environments. Or so we have been told. Complaining about not getting enough likes or enough followers as someone else you know is a different issue. I’m talking about those students that everybody knows and loves, whose popularity floats in the halls wherever you go. 

     Those who blend in and go about their day with a solid goal of learning find themselves saying only nice things to these people. It is a natural reaction to smile or to say “Happy Birthday!” to these people because everyone knows when it is their birthday or when their boyfriend broke up with them. What happens when the people that aren’t popular have a birthday? Nothing. Nothing happens. No happy birthdays, no surprises. 

     It is one thing to find obsessing over popularity stupid, but it is another to believe it doesn’t exist. Genuinely amazing people are overlooked simply because they aren’t on a sports team or a teacher’s favorite. It is never an intention to do so, but everyone who goes to school sees this and feels this every day. That feeling you get when the teacher tells you to pick a partner and nobody chooses you? That is the same feeling when a teacher sings “Happy Birthday” to their favorites but not you. 

     Being popular isn’t all that great either, you can be popular but not popular. What does that even mean? There is a hierarchy in a hierarchy, so close yet so far. It is completely possible to be in the middle of the popular ranks, where those at the top still look down on you. The pressure is undeniable and crippling. Ranks. Levels. Hierarchies. Is highschool a video game? 

     Everyone knows that popularity won’t define you later in life but people are lying when they say it doesn’t matter now. For many, their mental health is chipped and frayed everytime they are forgotten. It isn’t anyone’s fault, it is simply tradition.. The spotlight isn’t for some people, but being noticed shouldn’t be reserved for the “populars.”

     The world loves to promote the same people in many different ways, and the world also loves to “cancel” them. This idea is already forming as we graduate each school year- yet depending who you ask, it either doesn’t exist or it does. Popularity often equals your details and rumors crawling the floors and slipping into ears but it also means that you will never be forgotten. Do you make the sacrifice of privacy or do you deal with the pain of blending in? 

     It could be in my head, or yours, or in everyone’s. It could be made up and it could be dumb. But it affects every student’s life and, I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of it being dismissed as “teen drama”.

It matters.

It affects our minds.

It destroys self esteem and it isn’t fair. 

But life isn’t fair. 

Right?