The way I remember school is if you had a certain degree of confidence or spirit, people would either follow you or try and beat you down. Sadly for a time I had the latter issue. School isn't just a conformity factory as a result of teachers, it is also through pupils who are more interested in gaining acceptance. Individuality can be a real problem.

I remember reading some of my school reports in which I was described as a confident individualist and 'natural leader'. Something dragged me down to stop me from being that, it is a constant battle for supremacy and I suppose for a time at least, I lost. I was always an individual though. Annoyingly though I've found people actually admired me for sticking to my guns but obviously just went with the whole status quo and decided to be assholes instead. I am beyond caring anymore.

I actually find though that the people in school so far that were looked up to or were so called 'tough kids' afterwards lost any sort of status and often became druggies, drunkards or total losers. In fact in any field the most succesful people I know or am aware of are the people who at school were treated like crap.

I'm not suggesting you're being bullied or whatever but in the grand scheme of things, really, these people just don't matter, especially in the outside world... the real alpha males I remember were not bullies either. They were often good at sport and to an extent popular with girls, but were never total dicks, no need to be.

Hope I'm not rambling here, but maybe you get the point... if there is one...

I was always described as nonconformist...so all my teachers were surprised when I joined the Marine Corps, and my logic for how it still kept me nonconformist is that the standard path in life is to go to college, and the military is generally far less common.

_________________
Every Saint has a Past, Every Sinner has a Future