on and on the rain will fall.

for all those born beneath an angry star,
lest we forget how fragile we are.

adults nowadays tend to look back at their teenage years and most of them recall their high school years as being one of the worst moments in their lives.
being an adolescent is trivial; you're no longer a child but you're not an adult yet either, so what are you supposed to be? you're constantly plagued by that feeling of being stuck in between two extremes, and you feel like you don't belong in either category.
you look at the high school 'scene' and you complain about how all the kids look the same, yet they all claim that they're an individual of some sort. well, if you look at the high school community over the course of recent history you can see that nothing really has changed, except for pop culture and fashion sense.
in every decade it's almost obvious to pinpoint that one of the major problems in high school is dealing with that feeling of wanting to belong somewhere. it's a human trait to crave acceptance; we all want to feel like we're loved, that we're part of something. why do you think people form clubs and teams? people unite with a similar interest to express themselves through that interest. that single interest that binds them together makes each and every member of that club or group or whatever feel like they belong, because they have found people they can relate to. in high school, you see that the cafeteria is packed with different cliques, each with their own style and personality. ironically each clique thinks they're unique, even though every member dresses and acts exactly the same.
many cliques try not to clash with each other - for instance sometimes people won't wear a certain article of clothing because apparently everybody else wears it. a friend of mine doesn't like amy lee because his friend played bass for her during ozzfest one time and he told him that she was a bitch. that one piece of information immediately makes him dislike her, though he has admitted to me that he acknowledges the fact that she indeed does have talent. influence is a strong...er, influence in our everyday lives, unfortunately. our actions and decisions may well be based, no matter how unconscious it may be, on the influence of someone close to us, like a family member of a friend. whatever happened to doing things simply because you wanted to do it? does it really matter if everyone else is wearing the same oversized scarf as that guy in that overrated teeny-bopper band? will it be the end of the world if someone caught me wearing the same brand of sunglasses those rich valley girls from that so called reality show wear? it occurs to me that people simply think too much of what other people think of them; self-consciousness has taken an entirely new level.
influence is obviously a big part in an adolescent's life, as you have probably seen, or most likely even experienced for yourself once upon a time. they focus primarily on what they can and cannot do, depending on the clique they fit in with. outward appearances make the impression nowadays - it doesn't matter what you're really like. no one bothers to dig deeper because they're afraid they'll find something they won't like. nobody knows what to do in those kind of situations anymore, so they just ridicule you.
that's what happens when you don't fit in, or when someone picks out some kind of flaw within you. they mock you, they grind you to the bone for it. it's unnessecary and they know it, but they do it anyway for the sake of something to do, because they want to shy away from the limelight. they want to let everyone know that you're the one that's different, and not them. isn't it ironic how being different is the reason why kids are being teased for these days - well i mean kids were always being teased for being different, but the word different has been redefined over and over again. i guess conformity's the new in thing.