The High School Spotlight: Outcasts

 For those of you that have been in or are going through high school, you know how hard it really is. A few times I have chronicled my school experiences but I have not really touched on what makes up high school and what it really looks like outside of the movies. Does Mean Girls come to your mind at all when you think of high school? Movies like that focus more on the "popular" few and the "normal" few but not very often show the outcasts. Being an outcast has various meanings, and is not a term used as a negative subject in this post. Thus being said I would like to turn the light on those people who have seen it or have experienced it at any point in their life. I have had to brilliant minds write to me about the subject of outcasts to give you an incite on said title. Welcome back to high school for a few moments.





I've always been the kid on the outside looking in. Wanting to do what other kids did etc. Being an outcast is never fun. It really does suck. I know this from personal experience as I have often felt like an outcast among my peers. And I don't mean the "creepy lurker" kind of outcast. I am talking about the person who was constantly bullied in elementary/middle school and was "outcasted" among the kids I grew up with. Even in some after school activities I did that did not involve kids from my school, I was outcasted. So eventually I conformed to what others did in order to make friends. I spoke like they did, dressed like they did and all. It wasn't until high school when I finally met people who shared the same religious views as me, who had the same moral values as me, did I realize what a stupid decision that was. And once I stopped conforming to the so called "norms" did I finally feel comfortable being myself. 

Now that this is my last year in High School, I've begun to realize that being an "outcast" so to speak, really wasn't a bad thing. Sure it sucked at times when I needed a friend and had no one to go to but it kept me out of trouble and I always had fantastic grades. 

So to those of you who have been outcasted amongst your peers, please know that you are never alone and eventually you will find people like you. It may take years to find them, but you will. I promise.

~Anonymous 

Outcasts... That can be somewhat of a gray area for some people. The literal definition of an outcast is a person who has been rejected by society or social group, but I feel like that doesn’t cover the full meaning of an outcast. What I believe a true outcast would be is a person who feels ostracized by not only society but by the world around them, someone who tries desperately to escape to find their own "Nirvana" but to no avail. People don’t really pay attention to outcasts, the only time you really see them (unless you are one) is in movies but most of the time movies don’t serve them much justice. There is deeper beauty to an outcast though, the idea of being completely alone is honestly kind of peaceful yet complicated. No one really can grasp that idea of complete solitude only for the fact that we are never really alone, at least not in the modern world. But its not about being alone, its about feeling alone. You could have the whole world around you but without someone putting out their hand to help you could be cut off from everyone. I am not complaining nor am I asking for attention, I am just telling you how it feels.  

-Julian

Thank you so much to these lovely people who poured themselves into writing. The more I read over their pieces the more it takes me back to when I was in situations that they have been through. It makes me appreciate people much more who I usually don't talk to as much as I should. I hope you all loved reading as much as I did. Happy Wednesday!

Until Next Time,

Madison 

XOXO