Perspective

Popularity.  It's not as glamorous as you think.  Let me tell you about the popular girls in 6th grade.  I have a hard time respecting them because they cheat on all the exams and giggle in the process.  I see them talking rudely to the "dorkier" peers in the class and bossing them around.  It bugs me, but they continue to do so even when I demand them multiple times to stop.

Seeing all the cliques from an aerial point of view as an authority figure, it has shed light on what I went through as an adolescent.  I was under the illusion that the popular girls had it all.  But trust me- they don't.  Not even close.  Popularity is merely a hollow maintained image built on a mound of insecurity that is never fully satiated.

After close analysis I saw that popularity works in accordance with a pyramid scheme model.  The most popular girls are up at the top.  In my 6th grade class, there is a trio.  Underneath them are one or two girls who talk to the popular ones & get to be involved with what they do-- although they are not part of the trio.  These girls are like floaters.  If a popular girl is absent one of these girls can take their place.  Then on the bottom rung, are all the other girls.  When the popular girls want to cheat, they ask girls on the bottom rung for the answers.

As a kid, I was always on the bottom rung. Now I look back and want to kick myself in the face for ever wanting to be anything but that.  In truth, I think the students who aren't caught up in social statuses are the happiest.  Focusing on school is way more attractive in the end and will carry a student much farther than their looks or lame personality.