What Makes You Popular

I have a Pandora station for What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction. Today, Last Friday Night by Katy Perry came on, and I found myself wishing I could be the kind of person that has adventures like the ones listed in the song. Not, of course, getting arrested, or destroying things, or drinking. Just the kind of fun that makes good stories.

And I couldn't help thinking back to all those times when girls I knew would get together and hang out. They said they liked me, but I was rarely invited. It made me feel left out and unwanted. I always felt like such a loser around them, like nothing I said or did was right, and I only confirmed my place in their eyes, that of someone to be left behind.

After Katy Perry was finished, Chris Tomlin came on to sing Holy is the Lord. I laughed a little at the jump, but when What Makes You Beautiful came on afterward, I felt like it was a sign. God was talking to me through those songs: the first, to let me know to listen, and the second, to tell me how He felt about me. It probably sounds dumb, but I'm a big believer in signs, even ones that seem commonplace. I just thought it was too big a coincidence to ignore.

I started thinking about those popular girls, and how they seemed to have everything I wanted: the looks, the smarts, and the guys. Maybe it's not that I'm a loser and do everything wrong. Because no one does everything right. Maybe what is really behind popularity is confidence. No one thinks you do everything wrong if you act like you do everything right. Even things I would die after saying or doing, popular girls seem to just get away with. But it's not because they are actually better than me or anyone else. It's that they refuse to let the stupid things they do define everything else that they are. We're all just really cool people, but what differentiates us is how willing we are to let that coolness show, without worrying about how it looks.

I'd like to say it's something we can all just do, but change is difficult to make. Like deciding to save more money, making the choice to be more open isn't easy. But I have a feeling that it can be done anyway.

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