Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote that “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”  Middle school and high school is a challenging time for many; you do not know whether it is best to be yourself or just to follow the crowd.  I tried to fit in because I thought that being accepted was the most important thing, but then I realized that who I was at school was not my true self.  I realized that in order to have true friends, who actually cared about me and what I liked to do, I had to be myself.  It is imperative to do what we love, no matter what others may think.

When you start to be yourself, other people may not understand your behavior.  People are so accustomed to everyone trying to fit in that they do not understand why others would want to be themselves.  When I was in middle school all my friends were obsessed with boys and who people had crushes on.  I personally could care less who had crushes on who, and felt that having a boyfriend was pointless.  Even though I felt like my friends were being foolish I pretended like I was into that sort of thing for years.  Eventually I decided that I should just be myself and stop being fake at school.  My friends changed when I did this because they did not actually care about me or what I was into at the time.  Eventually people accepted me for who I truly was, and I began making new friends who genuinely cared about my interests.

It is important to join activities that interest you no matter what stereotypes are associated with them.  Extra-curricular activities are fun and enjoyable, but in high school all of them come with a label.  You need to be able to ignore the stereotypes and join the activities that interest you or else high school will be very boring.  I am in math league and band even though most people feel that makes me a nerd and a geek.  Whenever an announcement pertaining one of these activities is announced over the intercom, a lot of people make fun of it because they think that only geeks are in those activities.  It does not matter to me what other people think, because I am in activities that I enjoy and excel at strongly.

In high school we are faced with making the decision of what to do with our lives for the first time.  We need to choose what college we want to go to, what we want to major in, and ultimately what job we want to have in the future.  This is a big decision that we have to make, and we cannot let other people decide for us.  You will be the one that is going to be doing your job, not your parents or your friends.  It is a hard decision to make, but you have to be able to overcome the labels that come with certain jobs, and do what you love for the rest of your life.
Everything comes with a label, no matter what you do there will be stereotypes associated with it.  We need to be able to overcome these labels, even though other people may be confused, and choose to do what we want to do.  It does not matter what other people think because it is your life.  All decisions come with consequences, sometimes consequences can be good, but consequences can be bad too.  Ultimately you will be the one who has to live with the consequences, not your parents or your friends.  It is crucial to be able to do what you love no matter what everyone else might think.