It is true that at some moment in life, every person has experienced being an “outsider.” For me, this happened in 7th grade; I was homeschooled throughout elementary but decided to go to public school for a few classes in 7th grade. I was in volleyball so I had made friends through that before school started and once school year began I quickly made friends with nearly everyone. I did have one specific group of girls whom I ate lunch with every day, but I wasn’t really part of their group. I learned my lesson that year that by being friends with everyone, you really aren’t friends with anyone. I didn’t have a group to hang out with on the weekends because everyone already had their set groups that they spent time with. As the year progressed I realized I wanted to become better friends with my lunch crew but they were a very tight-knit bunch with a charismatic leader and they weren’t really looking for another member to their group. I would hang out with them in school a lot but when it came to being outside of school, I was never invited.
This began to change slowly at the end of 7th grade as some of the girls in the group began to hang out with me more in school but the most progress was made in 8th grade when the group fell apart and suddenly all of them wanted to be friends with me. I guess in their minds being friends with me was better than being alone so my popularity greatly increased. In fact, I soon became best friends with that charismatic leader and we have remained best friends to this very day (so this angst-y teenage drama does have a happy ending!) However, it would have been a happier story if my best friend today would have been more welcoming at the time by inviting me to events or if one of the other girls in the group would have had the guts to invite me over to develop the friendship more.
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