After 16 years, I thought I had finally obtained a hint of “coolness,” but now the cool gurus seem to have changed things on me.

Is cool uncool now? …Who makes these stupid rules? I thought I must really be uncool [or does that make me cool?] after I read a late September Zits comic that suggested that in order to be cool, you have to be “uncool.” Drat.

Our desire to be individuals inadvertently makes us all the same while we try to be different. What’s that all about?

Morphing into the crowd to be just like everybody else used to make you popular, but now being an individual makes you cool. Of course, being a part of a group is still important, but being unique to the group is what it is all about.

Have you ever thought of the enormous irony in this? What is cool this week may be uncool the next. This is madness, I tell you!

Designer and brand name clothes used to be all the rage, but now I can list a bunch of “cool” people that shop at Goodwill and Salvation Army. Just go get a jacket from a thrift store and you’re set. But don’t throw out that $20 Hollister top just yet, because that’s still cool too!

The next time you buy magazines showcasing celebrity beauties, remember that you may be buying feelings of inferiority.

This makes me wonder why the common people don’t overthrow the famous folk.

I guess that I like this un/cool outlook because it gives me that self-worth boost that all of us sorely need. I am especially cool now during Homecoming Week because I am being an individual by not dressing up in the decade fashions!

But, then I realized that not a lot of people dressed up, so I lose again! Or, does that make me a winner? Ah! This is so confusing!

I am standing aloof by not donning a tie-dye shirt and dress for ’70s day. Instead, I will continue to wear my XL American Eagle sweatshirt. Oversized sweatshirts are the only way to be comfy midst all the worry over whether I am wearing the right stuff.

Even though this individualism unites us a little more, there are still those who stick to the old rules. Cliques still reign on campuses everywhere and I have a feeling that they always will. So maybe the majority is right.

You know what? Who cares! I give up! I can’t take it anymore! I’m still going to wear my oversized sweatshirts and jeans.

Signing out, or until the next sale at Target,

Kira.