Final Essay Subject

I am not sure what the main focus of my final essay is going to be but I would like to focus on cliques, clichés and stereotypes. It is something I have always struggled to understand. Who decided that you could label someone by the clothes they wear or the music they listen to?? They were sadly mistaken. Adolescents are also judged by the stereotypes that go along with their labels. This is a subject that truly hits home for me.

My high school began in the eighth grade. My first day I met a sophomore who played varsity football and wrestled, a week later we were dating. He was my whole world as you could imagine, he was an eighth grade girls dream. Since Matt was older I became friends with all the upper classman, the football team, the cheerleaders, the wrestlers and wrestlerettes. I immediately became a part of the “popular kids”. With out even knowing I was dragged “heart” first into their world. I became a “preppy cheerleader”. Immediately people assumed I was from a wealthy background and wasn’t very smart, unless it came to shopping. I cared a lot about Matt and my new friends so I did my best to uphold my title as “Hayes Girl”. That was my nickname and what half my clothes said on the back. Matt graduated and was in college when we finally broke up.

Shortly after that people would say things to me like… “I never knew you could ride a horse.” “What do you know about tractors?” “I always thought you were stuck up.” These comments and many others like them really frustrated me. Although I was a “preppy cheerleader” I still grew up on a farm and loved to ride horses, four wheeling and bonfires. My best friends had been my best friends since elementary school they had never changed. We were all in different “cliques” and our still inseparable. People I went to school with my whole life never knew these things about me because they never took the time to see past my label. I wonder if I am guilty of never looking past there’s either????