Did we ever REALLY leave middle school?

Good Question.


-more on what I mean later tonight.

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Ok - I'm back.

So, I'm going to take a moment to laugh at myself. I posted that I would explain what I meant by the above statement.. but I never did.
What I did do - was verbally have a discussion of this to friends and in that, I vented the topic out of my system. I forgot that I agreed to transpose those thoughts into text. My bad.

Basically, the sociologist in me has been on overdrive lately. I've always been fascinated by crowd mentality and inter social relationships. Why do people gravitate towards other people? Is it just because of circumstance or is there something more? Is there a motive? A need? An attraction of personality? Fate?

I have my own answers and thoughts to each of those questions based on what I think about people and how we were created - and that's all good and jolly but where I get into feeling middle schoolish is when I come into situations where I notice what I like to call, "desperation for approval."

Why do people care about what others think of them?
Now, it's one thing to practice what you preach and want to be seen in doing so to set a positive spin on being a good role model but it's a completely other issue to want to do things on purpose to be seen or liked by a certain crowd.

Yet, we are all guilty of at some point - wanting to be accepted, liked and loved in such a way that we feel included/accepted. Again, that's ok - we all want to be loved... but some of us go to annoying measures of needy behaviors to accomplish those goals. My advice?

Be yourself and don't compromise what you believe/the Truth.

What have I learned over the years?
I have friends.
I have people that I like to be around.
I like to hangout with those people, given the opportunity.
I like to meet people and learn about them regardless of who there are.
If a friendship forms - awesome - nurture it, cherish it. Learn. Grow. Love.

Doing things just to be noticed, for the most part, is pretty lame in my opinion. I'm not talking about like a dude going out of his way for a girl to notice him.. bc that's different stuff all together... but I'm talking about straight-up making a dramatic scene into everything just for people to point a giant spotlight on your stage. This coming from someone who considers herself to be an entertainer of sorts, I know right?

I care about God and my goal is to live according to how we are called to live.
It's not about me.
I'm accepted by Him and I trust that I can be myself with the people I call friends/family.. that's legit.

-KP-