Bad Like Me

November 5, 2000

We live in a society that has certain unspoken rules, one of them being that you have to live up to someone else's definition of a good person. With mainstream Christianity being the dominant religion (at least in America), that means being quiet and polite, doing as you're told, never questioning authority figures, and believing that if something bad happens to you it's your own damn fault (even when there is simply no way it could be possible from an agnostic or atheist's point of view).

There are those who choose to disregard certain rules imposed by society, especially when those rules are just plain ridiculous to begin with. One group of unconventionals tends to do a fairly good job of standing out - the Bad Girls. I've slowly become one, and this is my story and perspective.

So let's say you were raised to be a good little girl and it's stuck with you just a little too well. You've gotten sick of being trampled on, you're afraid to go after what you want, you don't really like what you've already got, and your life is no fun whatsoever. You have a choice. You can either a) continue to live like this (assuming you can call it living, that is), or b) reject it all. When I was 17, I chose the latter.

I'm not going to bore anyone with the details of my life here. Let's just say I was miserable, dissatisfied, literally aching for something, *anything,* better. I'm not sure of the exact moment when it hit me, but I began to realize that I was trying too hard to please everybody *but* me. Screw that, I thought to myself. Who cares? It's my life. That year, I had my long, boring hair cut short and spiky/choppy and switched to more fitted, non-frumpy clothes. I'd been wanting to do it for ages, I just didn't have the guts.

When you stop caring what other people think, strange things start to happen. You spit at creepy guys who won't quit ogling you. You smirk for no apparent reason (this is really, really fun!). People look at you when you walk in the room. Girls want to be like you, and guys with girlfriends want to date you (hey, I never said it didn't cause messy situations).

Katherine Hepburn (a bad girl herself) once said, "If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun." A lot of people know this is true, but they sometimes go about breaking all the wrong rules.

I would just like to make a few things clear for the record. Being a Bad Girl does *not* necessarily mean out-drinking an entire fraternity, selling drugs out of your car, or sleeping with everyone within a 100-mile radius. It's more about attitude, being yourself, knowing when to bend the rules, knowing when to break the rules, and not being afraid to do the unexpected even if it's just for kicks. (Besides, in this day and age, heavy drinking, drug use, and sleeping around are so much more common that it's pretty badassed to just stand back and watch everyone else dig their own holes.)

November 5, 2000

Email me if you feel like it.

Back to Rotten Candy