Outbreak of Copycat Syndrome at GHS

There is a quote I really like: "When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other." Eric Hoffer

There is a difference between sharing a common interest with other people and being a total conformist. If you share a common interest, it's just you having similar tastes in certain activities, fashion, music or athletics, but what people do so often subconsciously is submit to peer pressure. 

I just don't understand why? Is it to make them fit in more? 

If you google nonconformist, it's interesting that what comes up are photos and cartoons of "emos" or "hipsters" or "Goths," and yet they all look the same. So, in the end, while many claim that they are nonconformists and try to be different, they create their own group just like all the others.

Yet the same people would probably protest if they were told they had to wear a uniform.

Many times in school we are given a prompt asking us to write a letter to the principal saying how we would feel if we had a dress code or uniform. But we seem not to realize that uniforms already exist.  

I don't understand the importance of being just like everyone else, when honestly you could just be yourself. Maybe it's because teenagers just don't know who they are yet. Maybe the problem with this imitation, or so-called "personal style" is that we are still in search of our true identities.

It strikes that me that in GHS, many girls of a certain social group have adopted the look of the thick white headband...every day. Some have even ventured out to wear different colored headbands like grey or brown. But, it seems to me like they are dressing to look like the people in the group they want to be part of. There are other examples: Tom's espadrilles, moccasin boots with tiered fringe, and the dear combination of Ugg boots, leggings and an oversized college sweatshirt.

I don't understand. Is Greenwich a major seaport? Because everyone is wearing nautical stripes and boating shoes. I'm pretty sure they can't all have yachts.

I wish people could dress to express their personal tastes without fearing that it will hurt their social status. Could you just imagine what it would look like if 2,800 students came to school dressed differently.