Almost Popular

I'm not popular. Not really. I mean, I go to a small school. Everybody knows everybody and hardly anyone hates me, actually I can't think of anyone who does. But I guess that doesn't mean they don't. So if being known and not hated is your definition of popular, maybe I am popular. But I don't really think so.

But I am almost popular. I get nominated for a lot of those "popularity contests" at OWU like the whOWU awards and homecoming that everyone claims to think are dumb as they are filling them out, but I never actually win. I'm almost cool enough to count as one of the cool kids.

That sounds cocky, doesn't it? I don't mean it to be. I just am amused that I am in this position. I've never been one of the actually popular kids. In fact, I usually hang with the nerdy, weird kid crowd. It's just that this is the very crowd that is cool here. To be a cool kid at OWU, you have to be borderline nuts at least. But I don't really fit in with them either. Well, maybe I fit in, but I'm not really one of them. I look like a leader, but in reality, I fit in with the leaders. It's their shadow that makes me look important. I'm better at encouraging leaders to be who they are than I am at being a leader myself I think. Or at least I feel that way. I don't really like to take control, believe it or not and I don't have to have my way. I'm just often the only one willing to take control. What does that make me?

I'm okay with where I am in life and who I am. I'd be interested to see what my position as "almost popular" looks like to other people.