Does Popularity Exist in College?

I’ve found that the social hierarchy of high school kinda crumbles in college. Or maybe that's just the case at my school, which is rather small, and has no Greek system, and isn't sports-centric. But I’d like to think that it’s more universal than that. I mean, even if I were at an enormous state school, who would be the metaphorical Regina George? There would have to be more than one, and I’m pretty sure that would never work out.

At my tiny school, at least, there is no Regina. It’s like everything she stands for, everything she represents, got hit by a bus. Sure, there are a few people on sports teams who think they’re “popular” because they go to ALL the parties and beat ALL the people at beer pong, but the rest of the school just lets them carry on by themselves. Let them relive high school if they want—we don’t have to care what they think anymore. We can wear our really expensive white gold hoop earrings even if it's "their" thing.

This, of course, means social anarchy. So pretend, for a minute, that you have an unhealthy obsession with something. Maybe you have the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack in your itunes library. Maybe you’ve read The Goblet of Fire so many times that you had to get a new copy because the pages in your old copy were falling out. Maybe you have Mean Girls memorized. Maybe you sometimes watch “X-Men Evolution.” Whatever your particular obsession, it’s possible that it hindered my *cough* YOUR so-called “popularity” in high school. But at college, there’s a good chance that whoever you’re around ALSO still reads Roald Dahl (he wrote a couple of really good short stories for adults, ok? And you know you love Willy Wonka) when they have time. You’re likely to bond with people over what, in high school, you considered a humiliating quirk.

This means that you can be friends with pretty much anyone. Or at the very least, you won’t be hindered by your completely irrational love for “Sky High.” I’ll prove my point: I am friends with several captains of sports teams and someone who’s actually read the Silmarillion—people who would be considered polar opposites if we were still in high school. Neither of them care when I geek out over Greek temples.

One last point: people really don’t care how popular you were in high school. You start all over again in college, and no one could care less if you were Spring Fling queen for four years in a row. You could’ve made out with a hot dog (just one time), and nobody would know. You have, as John Lock would say, a tabula rasa—a clean slate (I may or may not be multi-tasking with my Philosophy essay right now). Everyone, even the homeschooled jungle freak, starts out on even ground, and it’s absolutely wonderful.

Ginger’s Song of the Week: OK, I admit it, I watch Cowboy Bebop. And I ADORE it. The opening song is by far my favorite in all of televised history.

Does popularity exist at your college?

Related post: How to Be Insanely Popular in High School