My Passion For Nonconformity

There was absolutely nothing that could set me apart from the sea of designer purses, overly expensive shoes, and cherry flavored lip glosses. In high school, it seems if you weren’t marginalized into a group or follow the status quo you were seen as the misfit. One day, I experienced an epiphany in the back of my Government class, I wasn’t content with the illusion of the perfect teen. I had acceptable grades, I was well liked by most of my student body; however, I couldn’t come to the terms that I neglected what really mattered to me. At home my family would describe me with words such as: “eclectic, unique and remarkable.”, but at school I conformed into a person with a lackluster personality. I reckon that college is a place where each student is not the same and has the ability to be their true selves without being judged. This being, another reason why I respect your institution on the importance of accepting different cultures and

Kevin Davis’ essay Does Coming to College Mean Becoming Someone New? uses his personal story as well as research to highlight the changes new college students must make in order to grow into successful students. Davis explains that students must choose to grow in order for their college careers to be truly successful. Davis’ use of kairos as well as logical, ethical and emotional appeals organizes his essay into an effective one. The writer structures his essay in an exceptional way that leads the reader to analyze his uses of kairos, logos, ethos, and pathos.

The peaceful life of the English society of the 1960s was struck by the clashes between the Mods and Rockers. Both Mods and Rockers were called “gangs”, which is a “structure sharing the same ideas, attachments and solidarity” [7]. Every gang usually has its own “interests, activities, membership, and status” [7]. Usually such groups appear spontaneously. Both gangs - Mods and Rockers - “represented opposite tastes with regard to a number of social conventions such as clothing, grooming, music, and so on” [7]. For example, the Mods (modernists) preferred to wear suits and pointed shoes, listen to Jazz and Rhythm & Blues style of music and ride scooters. In their

Ralph Waldo Emerson, a leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the nineteenth century, once expresses his opinion on nonconformity when he wrote, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” His words express what many people have aspired to be. These words from Ralph Waldo Emerson highlight the idea of nonconformity which is one of the main pillars of the . Humans, having naturally social instincts, find it challenging to risk going against the crowd for fear of isolation, so Transcendental ideas can be difficult to execute amid the pressures of society. Ideas from this movement, particularly nonconformity, are some of the main themes in Dead Poets Society directed by Peter Weir. While Neil’s character in Dead Poets Society initially displays characteristics of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Transcendentalist ideas from “Self-Reliance,” he fails to continue his Transcendental endeavors proving that while Transcendentalism is possible, society ultimately causes individuals to conform.

In An Argument for Being a Poser, Liz Armstrong describes the crucial dilemma every young person faces about their identity, and to which subgenre do they belong to. Armstrong argues that such question can be both totally ridiculous, and actually very important; which leads to beginning of the process of discovering “who you are.” Furthermore, she describes the fictional subculture that you chose for your escape; within your chosen subgenre you don’t have to pretend to be different, and people understand you. In other words, your chosen subgenre is your place of escape, it is the place where acceptance and freedom is present. Besides, the fact of looking for a hidey-hole, she informs us with a life changing situation at the age of 16 years old. She describes the experience as being life changing, the kids she came across were simultaneously were role-playing and professing as being someone which they weren’t part of. Consequently, Armstrong used that moment to adapt to new change, which she describes as “not dressing up or being normal again.” She describes herself looking like a punk one day with a spiked collar, a crushed-velvet mini skirt the another day. Thus, for that reason she couldn’t fit in with honor students, nor the art kids. She couldn’t fit in with the honor student because for them she was too weird, but for the art kids she couldn’t draw. For this reason, she went from being a straight-A student to a what she describes a poser. Furthermore, Armstrong argues

An aggregate of the populace envisions one sole thing: to be distinguishable. Being an idiosyncratic is an alleviation of the “misfit curse”. 37% of teenagers classify themselves in this “misfit” category; they have not properly discovered one’s self, thus, they have not properly adjusted themselves to a higher level of maturity. To figure out one’s passion is difficult to apprehend; it accentuates, and then releases itself into a higher form. This is presented in Leila Sales’ exuberant novel, This Song Will Save Your Life. The main character, Elise Dembowski, is familiar with being a misfit. Her life suddenly has no meaning after another fictitious friendship attempt. For that

The subcultures “Beatniks” and “Hipsters” have proven to media and society that they have an urge for individualism. This is not something that has gone unnoticed by anyone, especially in the 1950’s with the beatniks. As a rise in each of their cultures, they have both experienced harsh criticism, attacking their style and how they approach life. There are many different views on how beatniks and hipsters lived/live their lives. Today, it is easy to tell the differences and similarities between beatniks and hipsters, because there are many of them.

One day I was sitting on the couch with my friend acacia, and as always, she was complaining about how her Instagram photos weren’t getting enough likes. I tried to help ease her distraught thoughts about her social media woes by looking up trending hashtags to get her picture the attention she was looking for. In one of the top spots was the word “hipster”. The first thing I thought of was a twenty- something year old, wearing way too tight American Apparel jeans and lens-less, glasses, complaining about how some recently unknown band is so mainstream or how their local coffee shop doesn’t know what at “flat-white” is. Everyone has that one friend who says everything is “too mainstream”, and Acacia was that friend. I brought up my suggestion and she got oddly offended, saying: “I am not a hipster” with pure disgust. I didn’t understand why she was so put-off; she fit, what I thought, was a stereotypical hipster. Then I thought, what exactly is a hipster?

branch of my family… I think most people feel an intense need to belong, a sense of ‘tribe,’ or ‘my people.’ Dressing the part signals to others that ‘I am this, not that,’” she told me. For Lambert, dressing so outside the norms of society was a way to “hide in plain sight and also be highly visible at the same time,” a way to have an identity that “insulated” her against bullies because she was with others who held her beliefs and looked like her. The sense of acceptance that Lambert found with the Goths was present in much of my other research — at heart, most people want to fit in.

In the days leading up to my school enrollment in high school, I wondered what this new school system would be like and if I could manage to cope and blend in with the rest of the crowd without losing my unique characteristics. Other than that, I was filled with great exuberance beginning to build the foundation of my destined career as a pharmacist at the same time increasing my skills as a woods craftsman.

I think I speak for many people when I say high school is a critical point in one’s life. Coming into high school, things seemed to be tightly-knitted between my peers and I; those of us who had just

That doesn’t sound like a positive start to high school, and it wasn’t. After years of apathy, of ‘it doesn’t matter if I fail, nobody cares, it doesn’t matter,’ of aspiring to nothing, I was suddenly confronted with ‘it does matter.’ I faced real consequences for my decisions. Where before I been up to my neck in pure academic diffidence

The early 1960’s to mid 1970s was the start of the counterculture of youth culture. During the 1960’s, there were revolutions including a sexual revolution, a cultural/ racial revolution, a rights revolution, and student revolutions. In addition to revolutions, there also a focus on the transition to adulthood, popularity, consumption, anxiety, and the media. However the movie, American Graffiti, which was set in the 1962 (1960s)–before the peak of 1960’s counterculture–and released in 1973 (1970’s) displays an environment more focused on the anxiety of transitioning to adulthood, dating, and consumerism--music and cars. American Graffiti compared to the set and release dates share similarities with the counterculture, but are depicted in

Looking through the decades, you can see the evolution of what is cool through phases and trends that society goes through. From the phases of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll to today’s hipsters, striving “be cool” stems from fitting in with specific values in society. Over the decades, growing up has become more confusing; making it harder for teenagers and young adults to find a sense of self. Pop culture continues to parallel the values of society as they both continue to change in content. Self and social acceptance has resided as goal of society therefore, we use pop culture as a tool to reflect today’s societal values and express individualism.

In my experiences at LVCP I have learned about careers that I may be interested in pursuing. By taking different classes, doing projects, and speaking to my peers I learned about careers I am interested in. Some of my interests as a student include writing, music, public work, history, and helping others for the ‘greater good’. This year I have given a lot more thought to, “after high school” and the careers I would like to study in college. I find this year I am more socially comfortable in school as a sophomore. I have found a great group of friends who push me everyday to be a great student. Last year I learned how to manage the workload of several projects, and assignments. I am still organized, but this year academically is more challenging than any year before.