Popularity Has A Price

Sera dreamed of being that one girl. That one girl that everybody loved, that one girl who was friendly with everyone that came her way and had ‘connections’. That one girl that all the guys lined up to be with, that one girl who was the most popular person in the whole group, and she was ready to do anything to get it. It was a dream of hers and she was the type of girl that liked to see her dreams come true.1

So, it started. The new chapter in her life had started, manipulating, scheming, trying to please everyone, trying to be that one girl. First by just helping out popular people, and they didn’t even know who she was. Then she stopped listening to her friends and would sell their secrets to these kinds of people who gossiped and enjoyed playing with secrets and making them bigger, worse and spreading them. Pretty soon Sera found herself ignoring her best friends, thinking that they weren’t important enough for her, thinking that she would seem un cool if she were seen with them.2

She spent every minute on the phone with these new ‘friends’ of hers. Her marks in school dropped like hail raining down from the sky, and she started to get this attitude. This I don’t care about anything attitude. It got from bad to worse, she started smoking, drinking and since everybody talked about problems with their parents, she would invite people over and fight with her mother and father in front of them, so they would gossip about how cool she is. How her life is so hard but she still manages, telling people that she was a great person. Then she became known as a slut and everybody started lying about her and there was a lot slandering behind her back. She knew all of this, but she also knew that everything was going according to plan.3

Sera was right, the most popular people had taken notice of her and she became one of the leaders of the generation, because she was right there, right there in the most popular group. But that wasn’t enough. She wanted all or nothing. But she was in over her head, and her life became bad, worse than it already was. She tried to aim for the big one and lost badly. These ‘friends’ of hers realized that she was really a nobody, a stupid girl that managed to somehow get to the top, a silly girl that wanted her few minutes of fame, and she got them but at a terrible price. 4

After reflecting on what happened during the past few months she finally realized something, that all along she wasn’t happy at all. It was always planning, watching your step, gossiping, not trusting people. She realized that she was just a fashion, and that now she was just like the people before, who tried and failed, who were now yesterdays old newspapers lining the outside of the dustbins. She finally understood, that all she really had to do was be herself. She didn’t need all this make up, fake nails, glitter, she had friends before who liked her just the way she was, but she lost them when she became stupid and wanted more. She learned that she should just be herself, she learned that with popularity comes a terrible price, loneliness. 5