rant – Page 6 – Bri's Own World

Teenage Life

What does it stand for? Jock, cheerleader, high status, basically. Also, it stands for a powerful force of mind that can destroy friendships and spirits. Some of the popular status even over-power and over-rule the other “lower-status” individuals, such as myself. It’s not that no one likes us, it’s that no one wants to like us.Because we’re different. We can’t choose. We just are. And that disgusts me. Do you want to know why? Because it’s sick. Because the kids that get picked on still worship, or sometimes, even hate. And some popular status people sometimes feel so powerful, that they bring guns and weapons to school to bring down the population of “nerds” and “unpopular”. Hence, the incident that happened earlier this year. If everyone could just get along, if everyone could like people because of who they are, or because of what they stand for, not how smart they are, or how pretty they are, then the world would be worth living in, for once.

Teenage Life

Greasers and Socs: In the real world

Posted on March 17, 2006November 16, 2021 by Bri

EDIT FROM 2021: Hello there! This post is now (gulp) 15 years old, and is still randomly getting views due to being recommended on StumbleUpon way back when. Enjoy but please keep that in mind, and if you want to learn more about what present-day me, an award-winning independent filmmaker, is up to, head to BriCastellini.com.

Now, the words I use to describe my live as I know it, Socs and Greasers, may be a little dramatic. No, the “Greasers” don’t smoke, they don’t live in junky trailer parks together, and the “Socs” don’t throw beer lasts and beat “Greasers”up, -yet. But the main ideas of the two words, popularity and status, tie in with my life. Actually, it really only ties in with how my school is run. Not how the teachers run it, but how the student body runs it. So the blueprints are laid out like this:

Popular (Soc)- Cheerleader, football player, jock, friends fall from the sky.

Semi-Popular- Friends of Socs, cousins, siblings, large cliques of friends.

Wanna-Be-Popular- Distant relatives of Socs, tag-alongs, smaller groups of friends.

Don’t-Care- Unpopular, plain, ordinary people, few friends.

Unpopular (Greaser)- Nerdy, geeky, ignored, shunned one or two friends.

Drifter- Floats from one group to the next, has one to two friends in each group.

I fall in the “Don’t Care” Category. I am almost a Greaser, and sometimes I am. But I don’t think we should separate ourselves and group as these things, it’s almost as if we’re different species. I believe that we should all be equal, and status shouldn’t matter. I mean, honestly people, the only thing that separates us is our looks and athletic abilities. Stop judging our books by their covers, because the pages are pretty interesting.

I am using the terms that come from a book called “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton. Check it out and you’ll get my meaning of this piece a lot better.

Teenage Life

Girl

Posted on March 17, 2006February 26, 2009 by Bri

“Girl. That’s all you are. A girl.” People use it as a bad word. It’s a gender. Get used to it. What if, all of the sudden, I decided to yell out “You’re such a boy!” How would that feel? Like a pang in your stomach or a slap in the face, eh? WELCOME TO MY LIFE. I can’t HELP being a girl. It’s not like I had a choice. So stop feeding me this crap about being one. Treat me like a person, like a friend. I think I’ve earned that much. And I don’t believe that I deserve to be picked on and shunned for the mere reason of femininity. Not all of us buy into Vogue and Covergirl. Some of us aren’t Barbie dolls either, so don’t you agree that we deserve a chance to show what we can do? Because that’s my hypothesis, and you can choose to agree or disagree. But remember this, the next time you see a girl standing alone on the playground; it’s your fault. She’s there for a reason. She’s a girl.

Author's note: I was in a REALLY bad mood when I wrote this a year ago. But I think it's pretty good, acctually.

Fiction

Downfall of Society

Posted on March 17, 2006February 26, 2009 by Bri

The first words of the constitution are “we the people”. As a revised modern draft would say, if ever compiled, “We the sexist, superficial, stereotyped maniacs whom are unwillingly pulled from our lounge chairs to vote and become part of the once envied freedom of the union of the United States of America”. Yes, it is true. Americans have become smug, comfortable, in their comfy little office jobs and their false assurances from the government that everyone is equal. Ha. Let me type that again. ‘Assurances from the government that everyone is equal'. Whatever idiot came up with that view of modern society hasn’t spent much time outside of his studio apartment in New York.

From my views, the only way this civilization will ever become equal is if, by some unexplainable miracle, people come to accept others, no matter how rich, poor, smart, or stupid they are, and that all the stereotypes are combined into one, standing group. Americans. Can we do it? Not in my lifetime.

Also, though it is said that women have been granted equal rights, due to the 19^th amendment, are we really? No. In theory, yes, but in practice? Give me a break. If we were granted equal rights and opportunities, then the girls basketball team would have new jerseys of their own, not the leftovers from the boy’s season. Now, that has to be the greatest understatement of the inequality of women’s rights in the history of forever, but it is a legit and credible argument covering the issue described. But women’s rights aren’t the only things that are created for the mere reason of making us feel better.

I am sure that everyone has heard of the stereotypes described in schools and in everyday adult life, such as ‘nerds’, ‘jocks’, ‘skaters’, and ‘preps’. How many times has a person gone home upset or in tears because of their apparent social standing? I know I have, for one, come home at night utterly depressed about my inability to converse naturally with all people. My social stigma is nerd. As pathetic as that sounds, it is what me and about 10% of my peers have been tormented about since the day they set foot in grade school. To what purpose does this serve? It makes others less ‘nerdy’ seem superior. How unfair is that, America?

I’m not asking those who are pointed to in this article to give up all their social life for the sake of those less gifted in social events. I’m merely stating the obvious that is in all of our hearts, some of which are almost too deep to find, and I demand only one thing; respect. Respect me and my fellow ‘nerds’. Respect me and my fellow women. But most of all, respect yourselves, and so that at the end of the day, if someone were to ask you if you are proud of how you live your life, and how you treat and think of others, you will be able to answer them with a truthful… yes.