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A little over two weeks ago, as I pulled into the gravel lot to park, the same way I do every morning before school, I made an unexplainable decision.
Rounding the corner into the lot, I noticed that my usual row of choice, lying on my left, was completely void of any cars. Meanwhile, the row to my right was almost completely full, and without hesitation, I turned my car, against my usual standard, finding the last spot in the packed row.
It wasn’t until one of my friends who parked in the same usual lot as me asked why I parked in a different place that I even noticed the choice I made. Yet, I had no answer for him. The satisfaction of filling a row? Maybe a subconscious strife for something out of the norm? The real answer, I knew, was just because it’s what other people were doing.
Conformity isn’t just a choice. It’s an instinct. In fact, the real choice in any matter of conformity is deciding whether or not to betray that instinct and be original.
Opposed to the kind of conformity we see in high school movies, where no one stands up to the Regina George of the school until someone else does first, conformity sweeps real life at a much smaller scale. Conformity happens in personal preference.
Just as someone might listen to different music after their friends hate on their playlist, just as someone might hide their political ideals from their classmates with opposing beliefs or just as someone might decide to park somewhere out of their comfort zone just to fill the spot society left for them, conformity happens in the small print.
It’s a well-known fact that without different opinions, nothing would ever change. Think of abolitionists spearheading movements because they disagreed with how the world was going, then think of how the world would be without those movements. Yet, even with this undisputed fact, people, enragingly, still hide their opinions or sometimes even change them to be just like everyone else’s.
One day, as I was sitting through government, my teacher, Mr. Lazar, led a discussion and started it off by having people raise their hands to show what political party they were associated with. Looking around the class of 30 students, all of whom had their hands anywhere but up, claiming no allegiance to the Republican party, he framed a question to everyone in the class.
“Does it make sense that in this class of 30 students not a single one of them is Republican, or is it more likely that there are Republicans, but they’re just afraid to raise their hands?”
As diverse as our culture is at WHHS, the stigma against being Republican is apparent to all party members alike. Even in writing this, I felt the need to make a subtle claim at my own political party; however, that endorsing is the exact culture that doesn’t allow for outsiders of thought.
In a story from NPR, “The war in Gaza is a big story on campus. These student reporters aren’t shying away,” listeners are taken through the perspective of two student journalists trying to tackle the story of a pro-Palestine gathering near campus. Aiming to be an impartial writer, one of the journalists gathered interviews from both sides of the rally. However, she felt that her classmates saw her differently after seeing her on the other side of the rally, though she was just covering it.
It is, in these very times, that all opinions deserve respect. Not just for those of your own, but those of every opposing opinion. Judging people for their personal beliefs is exactly the kind of thinking that starts a culture of hate rather than one of growth.
So, speak your mind and live life your way, not the way of others. In turn, respect others and expect nothing in return.
