"Cool"

"Cool" was the word that I used to describe the girls in middle school with Hollister t-shirts, stick-straight hair, and who sat at the table in the center of the cafeteria. Regardless if you go to a public or private school, we have a superficial outlook on what it means to be "cool." I don't necessarily think "cool" is a word to describe someone who is "a rebel" or "hipster," but more-so someone who is seen as "better" in some way, shape, or form. And in middle school, those girls sitting at the "cool table" were cool in my eyes because they received the attention of everyone, including boys. I wasn't exactly the most...curvaceous  girl out there. So I couldn't really identify myself with the "girls-who-developed-really-really-early-and-made-all-the-boys-come-to-the-yard" group. And this was a real bummer, because I had my fair share of crushes on boys. And, of course, hearing that a boy doesn't "like you like you" is nothing short of the end of the world.

The media constantly told me that being average wasn't good enough. For a long time, I molded my own identity into what I thought others wanted from me so I could be perceived as "cool." It wasn't until I got a huge slap in the face from REALITY when I realized that our definition of "cool" is forever changing. And if you continue to mold yourself to fit the current criteria of "cool," you'll lose sight of who you really are. "Cool" is now a word I use to describe someone who is confident in themselves and cherishes the things they choose to value. I don't use "cool" to describe a superficial and similar characteristic of a group of individuals, but I use it to describe someone whose actions portray the things they value and cherish.