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| I'm a Cool Kid 'cause I'm happy to be ME! |
You know what I've been thinkin' about lately? The Cool Kids. You know, at my office, there's a group of co-workers that sit over in front of the window in the cafeteria. On sunny days, the rest of us can't look over at them without squinting from the glare of the sun.
Some days, I think those co-workers think we all hafta squint when we look in their direction because their coolness just gives off such an incandescence that our mortal eyes cannot withstand it.
These co-workers are known as the Cool Kids around my office, and apparently it's a big deal with you get asked to join the Cool Kids at their lunch table. It's an even bigger deal when you're allowed to sit at their lunch table with your back to the window, so you can gaze out upon all the other co-workers who don't sit at that table. And if/when you are dismissed from the Cool Kids' table, it's a huge disgrace.
I guess.
I've never really gotten the Cool Kids, myself, Friends. I've also never really understood why so many of my coworkers want to be one of the Cool Kids. I mean, who told the Cool Kids that they're Cool, and who told the rest of us that we're Not? I don't remember sitting for the Sorting Hat on my first day of Orientation here at the office. In fact, I don't even remember there being a Sorting Hat, sorting all us coworkers into Cool Kids and Everybody Else groups.
The Cool Kids have set themselves apart from the rest of us. It isn't just their lunch table in the company cafeteria. They all dress kind of alike. They all listen to the same music. They all eat the same kinds of stuff in the cafeteria. None of them laughs out loud very often, they always look around first, and they definitely don't snort when they do laugh.
Nothing is ever *that* funny for the Cool Kids.
I'm not coming from a place of jealousy today, Friends. Please don't misread my questioning of the Social Order as jealousy. I love MY friends. I have Sabretooth, and the Little Giraffes, and Rozzie, and sometimes Joe the Humpday Camel (yes, he's still around!) I don't have a hard and fast buncha coworkers I eat lunch with. I mean, I've eaten lunch at the Cool Kids' table. I have. I even got to sit with my back to the window. And I wasn't dismissed. I just wanted to sit somewheres else the next day.
Well, because if you sit with the same people all the time, you hear the same stories, over and over and over again. It's all right, but it just isn't much fun. Not for me, anyway.
I don't dislike the Cool Kids. But I don't like to look around at everyone else before I start laughing at something. I don't like feelin' like I need to apologize for snortin'. I don't like feeling pressure not to be so excited about books and science and finding out how things work!
But. I *do* love lettin' my Freak Flag fly, Friends! I love meeting lots of different kinds of people, and liking all kinds of different kinds of musics, whether anybody else likes 'em or not. I like funny-looking food. I love big books!
In short, I love bein' me. And I love it when friends like who I really am, not who I'm tryin' to be to impress anybody.
It's like Bernard M. Baruch said:
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
If you ever find yourself at my company at lunchtime, Friends, you go ahead and sit with me and my friends. You can be yourself. You can snort when you laugh. You can really, really love books. Or sports. Or cars. Or science. We'll love talking to you and listening to you. You don't hafta like what everybody else at the table likes. We don't all agree on everything, either.
You know, in my head, my friends and I, even though we're a bunch of freaks, I think WE are the Cool Kids.
Friends, I'll see ya tomorrow! Be happy bein' you! I sure as heck love ya! Muah!
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