The idea of being “cool” likely brings up a few images to your mind. You may picture the biker, their dark aviator glasses and his leather jacket. On the other hand, the rich Ivy Leaguer may surface, reveling in their days on the lacrosse team. But what is it? What is it to be “cool?”

As a student who was not particularly in the in crowd, I had a fascination with what it meant. My high school experience, loathsome as it was, still taught me things that I remember today. As end-of-class bells rang and students spilled into the hallway, the cliques snapped into formation like magnets. I was always interested in—for those of us who have seen "Mean Girls"—the Plastics. They were the queens of cool.

They wore winged eyeliner every day, curled or braided their hair nearly every day and wore dresses once a week. They were incredible, even superheroes of style. But, as far as they went to look pretty, they didn’t want to act like it. In spite of the great lengths they went to make sure their eye makeup was symmetrical, their first reaction after a compliment was to dismiss it.

And this is the first point that I’d like to bring up – “coolness” has its roots in the natural, the effortless. It is “cool” to appear disconnected or unapplied. It was never said of anyone popular that “they work hard to retain their image.” People are popular because they are perceived as genuine, that what they do is natural. Facsimiles thereof are nearly as effective, which is why the “plastics” were so ruthlessly effective at my school.

The implementation of attitude is critical for one to appear “cool.” People who are “cool” have an attitude which is, for lack of a better word, “above.” For example, the aviator glasses the bikers use help them appear more detached and cool. "Holier-than-thou" wealthy children use their money to detach themselves from normal people and appear illustrious. But there is one tool which is better than fashion or a persona in order to appear detached.

For example, a well-placed “I remember being better at the …” pulls you up and out of the conversation like nobody’s business. Most, at such a comment, assume a foreknowledge and a heightened sense. In a single sentence, most people can project themselves above most company. All it takes is a little complaint.

Appearing detached, in general, implies an attitude of outside preference. To be detached and “cool” is to be superior to one’s situation; it is in and of itself a complaint of body language and attitude.

It is not fashionable to be content with what one has. A natural instinct is to complain, to use that as a mechanism to sound superior, but it only builds hollowness. People who complain, it is assumed, know better, and that is why they complain. But many times they do not truly know better. And complaining, in the vast majority of cases, changes nothing. It is simply nothing more than fashionable.