"The Mainstream Trends" never really worked out for me. First off, I just want to say that if you're one that follows the mainstream music, clothes, or anything else, I appreciate you. You're being yourself and that's great. I appreciate you being you, but it never worked out for me. Why?

When I was in middle school, high school, and even now in college, pop and rap has been society's music of choice. People were led to believe that if they didn't like pop or rap, they would be seen as weird or odd. In high school, we were pretty inclusive. Look at my own Facebook friends and there's the proof. I listened to pop in middle school and in the late 2000s. The music proved that it was pretty good. Then, I noticed the music start to get progressively worse. Rap was just never an option for me! I still don't like rap music, no matter how many times I listen to it.

My childhood best friend then introduced me to metal music in eighth grade and it just kind of stuck. I was a young talent anyways. I played guitar, clarinet, and saxophone by the time I got out of middle school. I already knew I was starting to veer off into an individual form of myself already. Metal music just added to my personality. Even my clothes changed over the years. Many people's fashion does.

I was a colorful person in my early years of school. I wore blues, reds, greens, yellows, and everything in between. However, I knew that wasn't my personality. My color was black, especially now. For one, now it may be just me. Colors make me look fat. If it's colored letters, that's fine, but having a color other than black, white, gray, or navy blue as a base of the clothing article is a big no in my fashion sense.

I was a nerdy looking kid in middle school, even into freshman year of high school. I would wear colored polo shirts every day and loose pants that couldn't stay up. I would look like my mother dressed me, even though I was 14. Eventually, I was able to get a sense of fashion and how I was supposed to look. The clothing that evolved over the years for me is how I got into men's fashion. I was interested in the trends that helped change a person for the better. I was always interested in leather, leather, and more leather. When I was in 6th grade, I would literally wear my grandfather's old leather jacket with a white T-shirt underneath to school. People thought that was the coolest damn thing they ever saw, but leather never goes out of style.

To this day, I have two different articles of leather and looking to get a third one soon for fashion. I even switched to skinny jeans in college because I finally fit in them. My style is both a curse and a blessing. In college, there's the stereotypical "frat boy" attire, but there's actually a couple, to be honest. First one is the Polo shirt with salmon shorts and boat shoes. A perfect example is my Freshman year roommate, he looked exactly like that. He was fit too, which is something that I'll bring up in a second. The second look is the fraternity letters with long hair combed back under a snapback.

Individuality is okay, no matter what club you join. Even your body, literally you can have a "dad-bod" or have a six pack, but that shouldn't matter. A group should accept you for you, and potential partners should accept you for you. No matter what you look like, I'm here to tell you that I chose individuality and you should too. Don't give into the mainstream lifestyle because "it's cool". Just be yourself, someone will thank you later.