The definition of high school however varies from one student to the next. For some students high school is a living hell. For others, it is the best time of their lives. There are students varying among them as well. The only thing we all agree on is that it is temporary.
Every high school around the world has cliques. There is no way that cliques can be removed from this environment. No amount of poking or prodding, rule making or breaking, or fussing and fidgeting can keep teenagers from grouping together with people they have things in common with. For some, this is simply the fact that they don't fit in with everyone else. My group, clique if you want, is made up of such misfits. We simply do not belong with everyone else, so we stay together.
It has changed over the years, gaining and losing members. The main idea has stayed true though. For most of my early childhood I bounced from one group to another, never really sticking. There were friends I made but they had their groups. Yes, second graders have cliques too. Though they aren't quite as brutal as the high school cliques. Small children hurt each others feeling often though, so the few large groups, over the years, break up into the more commonly known high school cliques.
By middle school our group was forming. There were about five members. This is really small compared to the socially elite groups that had twenty to thirty members. We were insignificant and unappreciated. I left the group for a short while making friends with two other misfits who were alone. I often played the role of mediator merging the misfits together. I brought them back to our small group and so it grew. By eighth grade, a couple of the original members had found a newly formed clique that they could feel comfortable in. The next year, our freshman year, we gained new members.
At the moment our group is seven members strong, with a few outliers here and there. We all have a few friends in other cliques but are not part of that clique. Each school has a different way of explaining the cliques in their school and sometimes one person might not even know all of them do to the vast possibilities there are.
When forming a clique there are three basic factors that people find commonalities.
1. The way other people see them: clothes, hair style, make-up, personality, etc.
Every clique has its own store[s]. Their style is depicted and people who look alike tend to feel more comfortable together. Some stores would go out of business if a certain clique were to vanish from the earth. This isn't always the case because a heavy metal punk rocker can be friends with a brainiac if they have other things in common.
2. The way they see themselves: smart, stupid, lazy, hard working, etc.
Now this is where the whole, "opposites attract," theory comes into play. Lazy students tend to stick with smart students to see if they can mooch off of them. Then again the smart ones are bothered by this and so they tend to stick together. Food for thought is something smart students use to stick together. They bring out each others intellects in arguments and debates.
3. Activities: sports, academics, etc.
Haven't you ever noticed the field hockey team tends to stick together. They are a family on the field so they become a family in the school. Most people bundle all of the sporty people into the "jocks" category and this isn't fair because each sport team might not get along with others. I tend to leave them in their own separate category. This too, isn't always the case because a cheerleader can be friends with a geek. It really depends on all of these factors.
I am one of the people who likes high school. It won't be the highlight of my life but I don't wish I wasn't here. I am a brainiac in a group of misfits and this is me conquering high school.
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