Our culture mirrors present day fashions and ideas. One person’s suggestion about what could be possibly “cool” commands the stage. One could wonder why this is such a big deal. What mold do we have to conform to? What questions do we have to ask? Why does our culture have such an obsession with trying to attain “perfection?” Happiness is what you make of it. Perfection is what you make of it.

            Present day high school is a perfect example of this deception in motion. Every high school has its own clique. Who is popular matters and while many people don’t want to admit it, it’s all a big Popularity Contest. It almost seems as if people on a lower level can’t attain the popular crowd because of a standard set by society. What qualifies someone as popular? Is it your look, your status in society or your connections and friends that decide this? There doesn’t seem like there is a clear cut answer.

            Girls are the first culprits. They see the images transmitted through a T.V screen telling them that perfection is right around the corner if you buy this, look like this, and make these changes to their personality. This “coolness” fire is only fed by the peer pressure felt by the people around you and your friends. Should it matter who you are?  What image you present to the rest of the world? In reality it’s not really about what you want, it’s about what everyone else thinks of you. Whether it is your hair, nails, chest, legs, or thighs its all for your friends. Yet when you are behind closed doors your façade comes down. It no longer about what the outside world thinks about you. It could be about the guy who you secretly have a crush on. It’s about what you can do to make him notice you. The mistake that girls make is sacrificing dignity, respect, and friends all for one person. If you did get the guy then how “real” is the love that you’re being shown. How long will he tolerate being around you. Once the reason he wanted you dissipates you’re left heartbroken or confused.

            Guys don’t have in much easier. Like girls guys are expected to conform to societies expectations; having the best in clothing, being a strong individual or being so in touch with the thuggery, vernacular, and rap lifestyle. If you don’t fit in, then you’re not cool. Guys like girls also have to deal with the stereotype that seems to follow. Without thinking about it television influences us more than our friends and because of this trend we seem more inclined to emulate or copy what the mainstream says.  Nothing says that blacks can’t have dreams and excel or decide to do something with their life, just as nothing says that whites have to hold true to being perfect and speaking proper English. Life is truly what you make of it and High School isn’t the final resting point. When you leave High School it’s a transition from the pond to the ocean and no one is going to pay special attention to you. You have to make something of yourself when you get out into the real world.

            Celebrities are no different than you or me. What sets them apart from the rest of the world is their status, the fact that they’re in the limelight. We sit at home for hours on end watching television just to view the highlights rather the suffering they endure. The entertainment value may be high but what can be obtained by these images; in reality nothing. Our culture is so involved with the drama of other people’s lives that we never really seem to focus on our tribulations and issues that we encounter everyday. This trend is perpetuated even more by technology that helps and even impedes us. Human interaction falls while isolation rises. People think that with the use of technology that it would be easier to communicate with the people around you. That’s the thing, the word interaction has two different forms; Interaction meaning to be able to talk to someone and physical interaction where you are actually right there with that person. While technology has increased interaction it has decreased physical interaction which is important for everyone to experience.

            Like what was stated earlier, we are influenced by TV and our friends. The most influential time is Adolescence. This is what the mainstream market towards; these in combination with peer pressure make a powerful life changing force. Your friends decide who you are, what kind of person you are. Individuality is something that you’ve had since you were born and time chooses the kind of person you will become. Individuality means that you stand alone and have something that defines you. Many people lose sight of that to the constant peer pressure and advertisements that surround them daily.      

            Society has become so concerned with what is currently in and popular that the individuality that we all been born with withers and falls away. There are people that sacrifice what’s good for everyone else for what’s good for them. They follow their own style and way of doing things. These people aren’t weird they're different. 

            To be able to say that being an individual stands above everything else is very difficult to do without being derided by society and people that are more “popular” than you. You only have one life and it shouldn’t be spent trying to please the mainstream since that is continually changing. You only have one life and it shouldn’t be spent depriving yourself of potential and possible brilliance. You have one life, one opportunity, one chance to not only show yourself but the world that you are an individual and  have something the contribute to the betterment of society.