To answer your question YOU are real. and we need more people like you in this lemming filled society. When I was in highschool, which was FOREVER ago, I had the same angst and complaints. So GO imissmeaning add some depth to this shallow society....hehehe

People judge what they don't understand and those that are different. That's why there are so few real people. In H.S. it is either be different and feel judged or be one of the pack and be accepted. Those without the strength to be different conform. Go you Imissmeaning. And there is real music out there, even some of the pop stuff has meaning. Gotye, Adele, and most likely many local artists wherever you live. BTW, in order to be real we have to realize that however they dress, there are people who are size zero and size 26. If you want people to not all be the same, that comes right along with it. But go you for liking what you like and sticking to your guns. And last but not least drugs and alcohol and breaking laws have always been "fun" from the anti prohibitionists, to the beatniks and hippies, to the drug users of today. It's a way to rebel against society and parents, and to feel (at least for a short time) better about yourself. It's also another way people choose to fit in. It's a stupid way to do all of those things IMO, but I was much like you in H.S. I wore what I wanted to wear, I listened to what I wanted to listen to, and I kept my nose in a book. It's also why it wasn't until after H.S. that the "popular" kids tried to give me the time of day, which was fine by me. So, no, it's not like that in real life unless you run into a H.S. aged kid on a warpath. (P.S. After high school you will most likely be in a position to judge those that judged you. Most of those people will continue to be losers and you don't have to say hi back.) ;)

lol... flickeringfairy's last line of her comment made me laugh XD There will always be time for depression and mostly they are just phases, i completely understood what you meant cause i had sometimes found myself in the same situation. This may sound cliche but i try to be positive about it, positive, NOT optimistic, it's a different thing. Homosapien have the same set of DNA but even with the similar coding, people will still be people, at the end of the day, with or without them(you know who), the sun still shines and the wind still blows.

I didn't go to school. It meant that I would have had to leave my house, and in the 80's with the threat of nuclear cataclysm hanging in the air, it was just too dangerous. I did, however, send a remote-controlled cardboard cut-out of Don Johnson (from 'Miami vice') replete with microphone & programmed (pre-recorded) responses, in my stead. Well, I'll tell you, miss tree, I don't know who was more cardboard; my stand-in or the superficial potatoes who tried to befriend him for the sole reason that he was drop-dead gorgeous (though a little one dimesional, like his potential suitors). Looking back, school was all a bit of a game, socialy speaking. Learn as much as you can & get out, is my advice. Be who you want to be & do what you want to do &, if you can, enjoy the parts that merrit your enjoyment, because there will be many. I offer this as an imensely old bloke of 39. Now where's my walking stick?

To answer your questions - yes it certainly goes away, people won't care nearly as much about you to notice your hairstyle or clothes in real life, as they do in school. They say people grow up, but really people mostly grow indifferent, which is all the same. School is just the right kind of boring, so that gossip and ridicule is everyone's favourite past time. Real music is still out there, real art is in Europe, real people you'll recognize by their ability to take your mind off of your own problems. Alcohol and drugs you can always avoid, so why worry about other people's bad choices. Size zero makes clothes look good, not the people who wear them. And people don't read anymore but they still see and hear, so you can always count on them to be people, even if they don't fit your vision of how the world should be.