Ah, good old high school physical education class where the teacher would pick the seemingly athletic, popular students to pick their teams for dodgeball day. These so called leaders would pick their friends, friends of friends and other seemingly popular classmates. Then there were the "nobodies," the people who are usually or never picked because they are not popular or no one ever talked to them. Their names were usually forgotten, blurred out. They were never invited to anything. They were either looked down on or made fun of, never fitting into any groups because they seemed boring and not worth getting to know a little more.

Because of this, people's self-esteem goes down and they try to act a way they are not. People changed the way they look and dressed. People are afraid of being unique; they are afraid of being themselves in front of others. They try everything to impress others and try to get a reaction. When they try to tell a joke, they look around to see if others are listening. They become self-conscious and try to catch up with the latest trends, trying to like the same interests as everyone else.

But wake up to reality! The truth is popularity does not matter. So what if you only have a couple friends — at least you know they are the ones who would stick with you through thick and thin. Everyone is different. No matter who you are, where you are, everyone is important. No one is worth more than the other. There is only one thing that should be important, and that should be being happy with who you are. Being comfortable in your own skin.

Being "popular" doesn't make you any less cooler or valueless. Being popular just means that the person is just more outgoing and social than others. There are two types of people: introverts and extroverts. We can't help the way our brain works. Just because someone is awkward or shy does not subtract someone's value or importance.

Popularity is just a false measurement of "coolness." There are people out there who are not surrounded by their friends but are the coolest people you would ever meet. If someone judges an individual by their likability and personality by the amount of people they know and hang out with, then their judgement would be completely wrong. In our generation today, we tend to put labels on people we meet every day, trying to assume who they are.

I'm pretty sure most of us have dealt with labels personally and a great majority of us know how that feels. It does not feel good at all, and it's sad to say it still exists and will continue to exist in our society. But the best thing we could do is not to overlook people but to look deeper into someone's true self. We shouldn't draw opinions based on popularity, because popularity is just a false measurement of someone's true worth.