|
Student Union
Mitchell Kuga |
There is life outside
the high school bubbleThe trends, the cliques, the gossip, the dramas. The "he said, she said," and over-importance placed on trying to be cool has seeped seamlessly into the daily fabric of high school life. It's a fabric so thick that it has a ring around our necks and a tie around our eyes, making us feel ways that we shouldn't feel, and blinding us from the very things that really matter.
The daily place of convergence we call high school traps us in a bubble where our view of the outside world is skewed between the silky outlines of the newest trends and latest dramas. On and on in circles, the soap opera plays, and we begin defining ourselves by the superficiality in which we're immersed. Breaking out of this toxic bubble is the only way to recognize the genuine truths about life.
"Well, I heard Michelle didn't like Jen because she slept with Nick, and Nick and Jen had a little thing going on. Or so I heard from Christie, who told Eric who heard it from Janelle who heard it from the teacher." Six girls at the lunch table recite the latest dramas as if their lives depend on it. Their shiny lips, drenched in flavored lip gloss, move at record-breaking speeds as the latest gossip gets exchanged between the amplified smacks of "Dentyne Ice' gum.
A girl walks by, not wearing the latest in belly-baring fashions, and the six heads of bleached hair rotate and stare her down. Turning to one another they let out wicked laughs as they exclaim, "Now where did she get THAT? Some people really need to, like, learn how to dress! I mean, hello! Corduroys were so over last year!"
The six bleached heads shake up and down in agreement as they smile, a gleam of gratification that can mean only one thing: "Oh, yes, we are sooo much better."
This is the life they live. They breathe it; they speak it; they act it. It's high school, a vicious game of backstabbing status quo. Many times boyfriends and girlfriends are not genuine relationships but status symbols, another accessory among the Gucci bags and Burburry hats. "Friends" act nice to your face one moment, then turn around and talk stink the next. We buy clothing based on what is trendy and cool, not what we actually like. It's a whirlpool of crowd-pleasing, artificially manufactured and produced people trying desperately to imitate what they see on the "Real World." Many times "friends" are together simply for convenience. Add the usual bouts of teenage PMS, and it makes for quite an ugly picture.
This soul-searching, "trying to find out who I am amid the hardships of adolescence" behavior, will always be part of high school life. But it is our ability to see things outside the bubble that lets us rise above the artificial jumble.
Inside the bubble, if the star athlete doesn't like me, then I am worthless. Outside of the bubble, it doesn't matter; I have friends who support me. Inside the bubble, if a clique wants to start trouble, I must retaliate -- pick a fight or at least talk trash back. Outside the bubble, I see their insecurity and, ask myself, will this matter a few years down the road? Inside the bubble, my success is measured by the number of girls I can hook up with in a weekend. Outside the bubble, it's in creating an economically as well as emotionally stable life, something not even acknowledged within the bubble of campus life.
Breaking free of the restrictive confines of high school's ethical and moral codes can be hard, but it is necessary in order to experience a fulfilling four years that you can look back on after graduation with a sense of pride.
Imagine looking into those glass figurines, the ones you buy at Disneyland, and seeing a morass of drama, lies and deceitful manipulations. Now you are standing outside looking in and laughing, "how petty." This can be you, if you jump free of the bubble and join me watching from the outside. You'll be surprised at what you see.
Mitchell Kuga is a junior at Moanalua High School.
Join the Student Union
Student Union is a forum for Hawaii's teenagers to tell the community what's on their minds and in their hearts. It appears every Thursday, starting today. We welcome opinions of no more than 700 words on any topic. Please include your name, address and phone number. E-mail to letters@starbulletin.com, fax to 529-4750 or mail to Student Union, Editorial Page, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, Honolulu, HI 96813. For more information, contact Jeff Finney at 529-4735 or jfinney@starbulletin.com.
