Work Text:
When I first entered middle school,
my aunt sent me new school clothes,
They were my size, so I decided to try them on.
That day when I went to school,
I saw all the friends I once knew, and some new faces too.
I'd hang with them and we'd talk for all hours....
Until, suddenly a group of girl's I didn't know, came up to me in the afternoon.
They pulled me aside,
Said we were now friends,
Simply because I was with an old friend.
They said that, since I was friends with her and that she was friends with them, it automatically made us friends.
What?
I didn't understand - but I didn't complain.
I mean,
I was always welcome to new friends.
Although, thinking back on it now....
I'm not sure that was the case.
They treated me right, while all the while, within their hearts they were truly vile.
How was I to know?
After some time, everything changed.
They were no longer as they seemed, they revealed their true colors towards me.
After they'd realized the person I'd be.
I will not blindly follow.
I will not sacrifice my beliefs,
Or even reject the people I cared for most.
They tried to gang up on me and make me feel insecure,
they tried to change me many times more.
They tried to make me feel like I was the one who was at fault there.
It didn't work.
I stood up to them,
And it gave them a shock.
I laughed it off with my real friends.
The one's who didn't judge,
Or ask me to change in any form, shape or way.
Later: I spoke about it with my mother.
She said they were jealous of my look.
"My look?" I exclaimed.
What's so special about it?
All I was wearing was some t-shirt, sneakers and jeans.
Mother said, it was because of their brand-name.
Apparently they were popular and very expensive.
I wasn't a fashion person,
I didn't understand.
Even now I don't understand the various fads.
At the time, I'd rolled my eyes and walked away.
It was the stupidest thing I'd ever heard of.
Now all these years later, when I look back, I now understand better the things that were said.
And it makes me sad.
I wonder,
can people really be that shallow?
Are there really people that judge by our outside appearance?
Doesn't anyone care for the soul that's within?
You can be the most beautiful person on earth and still have a blackened soul.
You can be the most ugliest person on earth and still have more friends than she who only thrives by physical beauty.
This is the Mask that Society wears.
They say one thing,
yet their actions speak another.
It breaks my heart to think of such things.
Still,
Its the truth of our society.
They make you feel bad for the simple fact that they were themselves.
The Mask of Society.
In my book, nothing could be worse than that.
People judge by the way other's have judged them.
Its a cycle that may never end.
That is the Mask of Society.
I feel lucky to be me,
I'm glad I didn't turn out to be a person like them.
If I was, I'd be disgraced, even to myself.
No matter the mold they try to shape me.
I am Original, I am Special,
Simply because, I Am Me.
I'll not sink so low, as to wear the Mask of Society.
And I sincerely hope,
none of you will either.