In A NutshellXXX

In a Nutshell

A place set aside to answer 201 autobiographical questions
from a mother for her daughter. This may take awhile...join us if you like.

30. I was generally popular or unpopular because.

As a person who pretty much went her own way, and was never as much concerned with what others thought about me as others of my age, I didn't bother with the things a person had to do to be really popular. I followed the style only up to a certain point -- before high school, I didn't want to be the only one doing things (although in high school I gloried in it), I also was never willing to do things that didn't feel right to me. By which, I don't mean that I wouldn't break rules or was a "goody two-shoes" but rather that I was never willing to let the boys win games or not be perceived as smart in order to fit in. I held girls who pulled sissy tricks like that in great scorn.

I wonder if I was too self-centered to be popular? I not only didn't mind being the smartest girl in class, I flaunted it. This in a time when girls weren't supposed to be smart, and it wasn't even a good idea for boys to take pride in their brains. I liked knowing and being able to do things other people didn't. I couldn't have been too obnoxious, since I always had good friends everywhere I went, but none of them would ever have qualified for popular, either. Neither I nor my friends were disliked, but we were never popular. Never wanted to be.

On the other hand, I was always able to get along with most kids on a superficial, daily level. I never was at a loss for people to talk to and hang out with and have fun with, no matter what group I was with. We might not share deep secrets, but we didn't shun each other, either. One of the girls in my neighborhood my sophomore year of high school was sort of the school bad girl, and we had many a pleasant chat.