Outrageous behavior
By Leanne Nakamura
a cry for attentionAS you look around your school, all you see are differences. Different hairstyles, different clothes, different faces. There are groups of students who pretend they're the best of friends. There are groups that ARE the best of friends.
There are the jocks, the outcasts, the average and the intelligent. Everyone has heard about them over and over, and everyone knows them.
But all of a sudden it seems as if everyone around is trying to be different from the rest. Some students cruise the campus in trenchcoats, jet-black lipstick and artificially pale faces, who claim to worship Marilyn Manson and the devil. A few went to the extreme of ripping up the Bible in an auditorium full of students!
Was their act just a way to disrespect others? Maybe.
Was it just a way to get attention? Suddenly they were the talk of the school. A lot of people got mad over what happened.
In my opinion, the Bible rippers got what they wanted, a reaction, which makes them no different from anyone else.
They try their best to cover up their human faces with gobs of makeup and layers of clothes. To get people to see how different they are, they went around disrespecting others. They started hurting people just to get reactions and to get people talking about them, so that finally, they got the attention they wanted.
WE all want attention at some time or another, and to get noticed we try to be different from the average. Different clothing styles and colors are meant to set us apart.
Teachers try to be heard by yelling or even staying quiet. Little siblings try to gain your attention by bothering and pestering. Guys try to get girls' to turn their heads by whistling.
But attracting notice is getting to be a tougher task, because it seems as if everything with the potential to shock has been done. There are millions of ways to try to get noticed, but most people aren't successful.
Besides, acting different and being different are not the same things. The people who tore up the Bible might have looked different, but do you think they really believe in and worship the devil with any kind of depth?
Maybe I'm so naive that I can't believe anyone could worship the devil, or maybe I'm correct in thinking they're just posers.
But next time someone does something to annoy you or make you mad, ask yourself, "Are they doing it to gain my attention, or are they really doing it because it's the only way they know how to act?"
Leanne Nakamura is a sophomore at Castle High School. Rant & Rave is a Tuesday Star-Bulletin feature
allowing those 12 to 22 to serve up fresh perspectives.
Speak up by fax at 523-8509; by answering machine at 525-8666;
snail mail at P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu 96802;
or e-mail, features@starbulletin.com
