Conforming to popular norms is the easiest way to fit into society.
Even tiny organisms know that, if all else fails, just follow the pack. Especially, when you have no other reliable information to go on, such as your first day in a new school.
Obviously, back in those days, a kid could look to crtain authority figures as a trusted source for aid. Hence, if there were teachers, cowboys, cops, firefighters, and/or football players around, we knew we were in good hands...right?
Sadly, only now am I able to look back and recognize with any real clarity who the good and bad apples among those put in charge of our well-being for the better part of five long-ass days a week.
After the 28th straight day of dodgeball in gym class, however, even the slow kids were starting to think Mr. Buntz, who always looked about eight months pregnant in his "workout attire", just might be a sadist.
Was it just a coincidence that everybody's gym class, no matter what grade you were in, had some variation of "rubber balls to the face"? Sometimes, it was "scatter dodge", where there were no teams , or kickball where, no matter how hard you tried not to, your kick would always perform some physics-defying curve and hit some poor girl with glasses square in the face.
I'm not kidding when I suggest that there are probably more than a few kids with PTSD from those days.
At some point, someone in a position of power should have asked Mr. Buntz, "What is it with you and large red balls, Mr. Buntz?"
By that point, "Childhood You" has probably realized that not all kids are created equal.
Maybe you're even honest enough with yourself to see where you fit into that hierarchy. We all want to be popular and well-liked, but, sometimes, the mental price is just too high.
At the end of the day, some kids are just dicks, some kids are punching bags and, as history now confirms, that role very rarely changes. Some kids are always the team captain, and HORRIBLE at it, while some kids would be great at it, but NEVER get the chance, even as adults.
WHERE'S THE TOP 5 LIST?!
In truth, there is only ONE reason not to be a conformist, but I can't even say what THAT is with any absolute certainty because the reason differs from person to person.
Some become non-conformists out of spite.
Others become non-conformists in order to be seen as cool by those who were born to follow.
Some even choose non-conformity due to the very simple fact that all the best books, movies, and music were made by those who refused to conform.
Every generation needs its own Sex Pistols to give those who don't fit in something to grab onto; a lifeline, if you will, wherein they can see that they're not alone in feeling that a life lived straight down the middle is not for them.
Until that day comes, you're made to feel like an alien by the rest of society as they stand in line to buy $12 nachos on top of the $20 ticket price to catch a movie they already know the ending to because this is the third Spiderman reboot this week.
Today, being a non-conformist is easier than ever because culture and politics are as fucked as they've ever been in modern history. many times, the choice to not conform is made for you by virtue of every other choice being so obviously beneath anyone with a pulse, yet few can resist the human desire to be liked, to the point of contortion.
In fact, it has always been my personal belief that we should be called non-contortionists because we flat out refuse to tie ourselves up in knots to please others.
Society has proven that they don't want to be fooled by those thought-provoking M. Night Shama Lama Ding Dong movies when a good old-fashioned CGI fest with characters they recognize from childhood cartoons are now played by REAL ACTORS in new ones.
As a kid, I thought the future would be spectacular and that, as adults, we'd outgrow Saturday morning cartoons, but now these same caped crusaders dominate American cinema.
You either conform to that level of "entertainment' for the social component, which every one of these dumb fucking movies is reliant upon, and become a mental "knuckle dragger" in the process or you disconnect from the mainstream groupthink and seek out your own fare, which means that once again YOU get to take the road less traveled.
Trust me, nobody chooses to be a non-conformist.
That's just the natural by-product of simply needing more than the herd is capable of offering. That is obviously good enough for a lot of people, but for those of us who have ALWAYS been the first to start looking around and wondering why the Kool-Aid isn't working.
It is not an easy or stress-free path, but the rewards are that the experiences you make yourself available for will make you that much more interesting to those friends you are bound to meet along the way.
That's what I'm hoping, anyway.