High school is the killer of self-expression
As a high schooler, I can confidently say that we are in our most insecure and self-conscious ages, but simultaneously at the age where everyone is trying to figure out who they are. The process of discovering yourself and who you are as a person is not linear, and everyone has their ups and downs while doing so. It is imperative to have a place where you are free to express yourself however you want to, particularly during times of self-discovery. Unfortunately for many teenagers, high school proves to be the opposite, killing self-expression entirely due to the fear of being ridiculed by peers.
When I entered high school as a 13-year-old, I was a completely different person than I am today. I was self-conscious of every little thing I did, said and wore. I came to school constantly in fear of doing something “wrong” and being made fun of or laughed at by older high schoolers whom my younger self had deemed the pinnacle of “cool.” Now as a junior, I have grown out of this irrational fear and learned that everyone operates in their own world and rarely pays attention to minute details of the people around them. Even though I myself have mostly moved on from this constant worry of being judged, I know so many people around me who have not. They still go to school every day self-conscious of what they wear or do, scared to change how they present themselves due to the facade of judgment that is made in a high school environment.
The constant feeling that everyone is judging you leads to the eradication of expressing yourself how you want to and instead results in one adapting to whatever is trending at the time. Teenagers spend countless sums of money to buy whatever clothes and shoes are in style, changing their music taste to fit in with other people and catering their online and in-person appearance for a select group of people. The presence of trends is only amplified when you are constantly surrounded by teenagers echoing the trends you see online every single day. This constant changing of oneself to fit trends and made-up standards eliminates having a personality of your own. Everyone has to discover who they are as a person. If you are changing yourself constantly in an attempt to fit in, then no one will ever know who you actually are and you will feel out of place no matter what.
The unfortunate clashing of being an insecure teenager in an echo chamber of trends while figuring out who you are creates the feeling that everyone is watching you at all times. However, in reality, everyone is so hyper-focused on themselves that they do not have time to think about whether another person changed their hair or wore different pants. Everyone has to discover who they are as a person, even when the environment of high school makes it seem like a terrifying process. But working through the fear of being ridiculed is a necessary part of life.
