Sometimes there are kids who just seem to be more fun to be around to be with because they are bubbly and friendly. They just look friendly and draw everyone to them. I think those kind of popular people are great.

But then there are jerks who think they are popular. Yeah...I'm not a big fan of them.

Having been very shy and introverted throughout my school years, I was never popular. I would have liked to have more friends, but being actually popular would have been pretty frightening! Being a homeschooler, I haven't had any real experience with bullies; not in a school setting anyways. I was just the quiet person who stayed out of the way in any group setting. I still am, really. For some reason I'm rather bad at making conversation, even with people I know. But having really close relationships with all of my siblings pretty much makes up for it!

^ Do you ever get into "popularity" problems with your siblings?
I'm ok with my bro, but my parents are always telling my brother how smart I am or whatever (to encourage him to work harder. .)
I hate that. For one things my brother is so much younger that me, its unfair. But I also don't want him to feel inadequent next to me. There are plenty of things he is awsome (which I suck at .)

I also know siblings who actively compete to be popular than each other (whether that be with their parents, friends, or strangers.) And I don't mean competition in a good way.

I know what you're talking about! My siblings and I don't compete in a negative way at all, but our parents do sometimes compare one of my younger sisters to me - we have different... styles, I guess, her's being a little more "Mainstream" then mine. They will say "Why does [Sister] not dress like [Adeona]?" It makes me uncomfortable.
Thankfully we don't have that problem academically!

Its interesting to see that popular people tend to take a lot of relevance to their status. Sometimes to the point the would go over their values and the feelings of others. Even if these people are good and kind hearted, I've noticed that when someone becomes popular among their peers they tend to do things driven by the what other think about them.

It makes me wonder why does this happen. It is true peer pressure has an immense presence in the life of somebody popular. But does that necessarily mean it is important to give that much of a relevance to what other think? Makes me think a bit.

Wow, it is amazing how many people here haven't been popular. *Wonders if there is correlation between liking Narnia and not being popular.*

I have never been popular. I never wanted to be either or at least I never wanted to be in the "popular" group. I suppose everyone wants to be liked. I think the first thing I learn as a Kindergartener was how to ignore people when they were picking on me. I was tease a lot growing up, especially when I was in 7th - 9th grade. Like others have said, I think that being picked on helped me develop and become who I am. Was it fun to be picked on? Of course not! Really though, I was hurt far deeper by my friends than any bully. When I was in 6th -9th grade, I attended schools that were combined between one or two small towns. Boy, were the different groups clear there! Generally, people from Town 1 were not allowed into groups that included people from Town 2 and/or Town 3. Each town also had its own hierarchy. Sometimes there was overlap. Generally the poorest people lived in Town 1. There was subsidized housing there, but there were also middle class people. I moved to that town in 6th grade. Thus, I was an outsider. For the most part my schoolmates in that town didn't want anything to do with me unless they needed a target or help with their homework. (Most of them I didn't want to hang around with anyway. ) I got along okay with some of the students from the other towns. Mostly the ones who were smart and actually wanted to learn and do well in school (a very small percentage). People weren't really sure how to be inclusive of other people. Most of the students had lived there all their lives and had family and friends enough. I did get along well with some of the other misfits. My best friend at that time could have been considered "popular." At least with the girls. He was very trendy and had groupies, but they didn't like him so much as the image he was portraying. He never saw that though. It was perfectly obvious to me. When he was being himself he was a misfit too, although he had been born there.

Two of the hardest things for me to get used to on NarniaWeb is that I am actually noticed (I tend to blend into the surrounds in RL (when I'm not needed for something) and that people actually value me for who I am and not what they can get from me. I don't mean to paint too bleak a picture of my real life. I do have some friends but I usually end up making friends because I get thrown together with people and not because they noticed me / saw that we had things in common. Mostly I get weird looks when I start on Narnia. I fit in okay in college people in the major tend to have similar interests, but I really didn't make any friends. So much for the "college is where you will make friends that will last the rest of your life" idea

I was never very popular, or unpopular. I remember being upset because there was a teachers pet who got the lead role in a play. But really, I had friends. I just wasn't miss popularity. Which might be a good thing, no pressure...

Lu

I am a bit of everything, I'm not very popluar though I am good friends with alot of people who are very popluar. At my school alot of the most popular kids are kind of nerds(I'm public schooled FYI) their in all AP classes and straight A's and everything, but they dont dress or act nerdy. Then I'm a drama geek and a bit of a jock for being on the soccer team so I go all around some of my closest friends are not popular then I have the mix of very popluar friends.I also consider myself nerdy for on weekends I would much rather read at my house then go to a crazy party

I like the fact that I'm not 100% popular I like, so I can hang out with different groups of people and still be ok whereever I go

Popularity and me are two words that really don't go together. Look for me in a crowd of people, I'm the one in back, sitting with my own thoughts. I am a very shy girl and really feel uncomfortable in large crowds, they make me nervouse. In general I'm not one of those girls who even could be popular but then I never did crave it either. I am very glad that I am not popular, as I know it could get to my head and then I would be a very unpleasant person. I have two or three close friends and hang out with them from time to time, but in general I am a loner, one of those kind of people who likes to go out in the woods or in a field and just be by myself with my Creator. But I do tend to take it to the extreme and now I am teaching myself to communicate with others too. It's not easy, as I said befroe I am unbelievably shy and it takes everything within me to force myself to say something (even here on NW, I have to force myself to post a lot of times, cause often I want to but I can't cause I am so shy, my dear younger sisters, Narnian_Archer and De_De actually deserve a lot of credit to a lot of the posts I made here, the always encourage me not to be shy and to go ahead and post. De_De will sometimes threaten me that if I don't post what I wrote she'll hack into my account and post it for me thanks girls, I would't be able to survive without you )
anyway here I am going on and on in circles, all to say that I'm not the popular sort, and happy about that

In high school I was frequently called a prep (probably due to how I dressed) And I hung out with other preps but I was never really part of their group.

I was the one person who hung out with everyone, I was friends with jocks, preps, nerds, drug addicts, etc., but I never really found a place in any one group. I was pretty much a misfit.

The thing I remember most about high school was, when my senior year came around, I didn't care about anything at all. I started hanging out with underclassmen because I was tired of hanging out with the other seniors. And then I remember once, two sophomore guys got in a fight over who would sit next to me at lunch, and one guy threw the other guy out the door onto the pavement and then when I went out to see if he was all right, all three of us got detention. Then in detention, the school "bad boy" (every school has one) started making inappropriate gestures at me, so I kicked him under the table really hard, and he yelled, and got in trouble, and after that he left me alone.

I'm glad high school is over...

Two of the hardest things for me to get used to on NarniaWeb is that I am actually noticed

Haha for me it's the opposite. I'm unnoticed on Narniaweb but I'm never unnoticed in real life, even though I try. The above example I talked about is just one of the many times when I'm just minding my own business and suddenly I'm the center of attention in the middle of an uproar. It seems to happen to me quite a bit.

With me it basically depended on the group of people I was with. If I was with a bunch of really outgoing, sporty people, I would be unpopular. But if I was with a group of quiet bookworms, I was pretty popular. It just depended on if I had anything in common with them.

~Riella

In my high school there were some genuinely popular kids in the sense that they were nice and most people liked them. We prided ourselves in not having cliques--there were groups of friends that mingled and most people got along. Yes, there were some students who sort of kept away from social life and the like but no one was ever ostracised. On the other hand, a lot of people were sort of elitist. For example, we wanted to have a graduation party, but people just ended up throwing their own parties and not letting some people come. We wanted to have a huge afterprom but this girl decided to only invite about a third of the grade to her own party and then complained when some people asked her to invite their friends as well. So to a newcomer we would have seemed like a close-knit grade, but in truth there were some people who messed everything up.

I am a jock and i am in the popular "group" at school. But im not one of the kids that says"dont sit by me". It is horrible to see what the "popular" kids do to the "unpopular"kids.

When I was in school, I never really paid much attention to most all of my peers. Compared to myself, most of my peers were either apathetic or immature. I singled out a few that were like me and I made friends with them, and created my own circle of friends. I had more friends who were teachers. Teachers and I would frequently go out for coffee together, which continued throughout high school. Shutting yourself off from those who are apathetic in the quest for knowledge or are simply immature will make your life much easier.

You should not go by the philosophy of "I don't care what anyone thinks of me", but rather, "The words of fools fall upon deaf ears."

In school, I wanted to be popular so bad. Some people say I was nice in middle school but I was a jerk. I really hate the middle school version of myself.I wasn't really a bully, but I still hate it. I almost became popular, but then lost my popularity and tried so hard to regain it. I was nice in eighth grade, but I disagree with most of my beliefs about being a Christian back then. And I was a lousy friend to one of my friends and that did not end well at all.

In highschool, I was not popular except for 11 grade but then it slipped away so fast. I was very kind to others, no matter what they wore. I was the opposite of my 6th and 7th grade self.
I would try to be friends with them no matter how popular they were. I made a few good friends and one of them I still talk to and actually visited this past winter. I made friends with those girls in 8th grade, they were in sixth and and still friends with one of them. We did so much fun stuff with each other.

It's better to have a few good friends who love you for you then to be fake adn phony just to be popular.

The weird thing about me is I am very outspoken but very awkward and nervous and insecure.