I've mostly stayed out of this conversation (other than initiating it, of course, and reading it), because I don't consider myself an expert on it. But I just couldn't resist when you gave me this link. Admittedly, it is a very good article, and one that generally explains most of the situations that many people go through.

The thing is, my school is one that's very strange. We value smartness to the point where so-called nerds "rule" the school, meaning they're elected to ASB and class president and such. And a lot of them have been or are on our speech and debate team, one of the biggest clubs on campus (and I'm in it, too, so I'd know). Most of our jocks and cheerleaders are actually pretty smart, and our football team sucks so much that when it won a game last year, we were in the local newspaper. Our badminton team is jokingly referred to as our best sports team because of all the Asians, but - last year, at least - it was true. This is a school full of Asians - so full that we have a majority of Asians, and we consider other nationalities to be in the minority. We are extremely sheltered, too. So I guess in one way, we've already met the "real world" in terms of the respect for intelligence (people think you're crazy in admiring terms if you take 4 APs at a time), but in others, we were very sheltered because we don't know what to do in the real world. Nothing we're taught in those AP courses really teach us how to buy a house, or pay taxes, or become socially experienced. But I guess you don't really learn that anywhere other than first hand experience unless you're lucky.

I guess this is why I didn't really know how to handle this drama. I never learned much at all. It's not really nerds being unpopular in my school, but more like friends persecuting friends for being friends with enemies, if that made sense. The normal backstabbing stuff you find in movies, except done solely in words, not actions. But words probably hurt more than actions ever would. Maybe my perspective on my school is wrong, and maybe it's just one tiny slice of the pie of the drama going on, but I suppose that in my community, we follow our parents in competing to be the smartest instead of the most popular. This probably doesn't help make any of us very socially mature.

I'd like to think that a lot of us grew up quickly with the deaths of two students within the span of two weeks last year, realizing that no, high school isn't all that we live for. At least, I was one of those people. I believe that those who didn't know those people well and who just think of them as statistics - like my friends - are still under the impression that college and life in general is exactly the same as high school. All we have to worry about is grades, grades, grades, and what's on the school lunch menu. Socializing is kept to brunch and lunch and the occasional IMing and phone call.

I guess I really didn't have much of a point, but just a bit of explanation and background on how strange my school, or at least, my "group," is. Take what point you will, because I kind of can't figure it out.

~Crystal"then again, when I've rambled inanely for so long, no one can figure it out"109