Masquerade

"Paper faces on parade..." How seriously true is that for high school? Um... I'd say very. Even within my own life I've noticed that I act differently with certain people. The biggest contrast was when I wasn't best friends with all my band geek friends. I'm a devout band geek, but I couldn't act like it around my friends. Now that I AM friends with most of the band geeks, it's much easier to be myself. And how many people act rude to a perfectly nice store clerk when they're in a bad mood? Not very many. If that person acts nicely to you first, more than likely you'll react nicely-even if you've had a crappy day. It's a mask. Then when you go hom and your sibling or parent does something to make you mad... BOOM! The mask comes off and you let it all go. 

Then there are smaller differences. Like the way you act with different people you don't know very well. I think we put on a mask that makes us fit in the fastest. For example, I used to live in California where it feels like half he population is Latino. None of the white kids ever wanted to play with me, and the Latinos did. So as I started hanging out with them, I kind of would start talking with a slight "Mexican accent". Not on purpose, and of course not to mock them. It was just a mask I put on. Then when I had to be in class with the white kids, I tried to do whatever I could to make them like me. Another mask. I miserably failed, but it was yet another mask. Then when I would go home, I'd put on a mask for my family.

It's funny how much we change who we are based on whatever group of people we're with. It's way intense and quite interesting to study.