Goonies are Good Enough

(Goonies are Good Enough~Cyndi Lauper)

  So, today is the first day of summer vacation, and already there are 14 year old girls all over the place trying to plot what they are going to do this summer to make them more popular next year. They are trying to cut their hair. They are trying to dye their hair. They are trying to get skinny. They are trying to change themselves.
 Let me make this real simple: The girl in the hairnet will be the most interesting person you ever meet. She will grow up to be a tattoo artist and live in NYC. Hair problems can be fixed. The fat kid with the glasses that sits next to you in journalism who always appears to drool will actually lose 30 pounds in college and start his own magazine. Drooling can be fixed. The weird girl that wears a sweater vest over a sweater will grow up to own an awesome vinyl collection and be able to grow (legal) herbs that you've never heard of. Fashion problems can be fixed.
   Change is good. As long as you know why you're changing. And if you're changing to fit in with a group of people that have absolutely nothing in common with you....then it will take twice as long for you to grow up to be the uber cool person you were meant to be. "Cool". Well, kids, cool never changes. Cool is always the football player, the cheerleader...they have their place, but when you're an adult then cool takes on a whole new meaning. It means you can think for yourself, read, dream, travel; and not at the expense of others. It means you dress how you want and vote how you want and love who you want.
   The popular kids are -at this very moment- trying to figure out how to STAY popular. Quit giving up on yourself. You could be cool as soon as tomorrow if you only focused on YOU today.

The quirky kids always have the most interesting stories ~Mama Shey