We were having a class discussion when the whole world seemed to freeze. I sat in my desk as an observer, the voice of my teacher faded away and I sat there as if I were invisible. After spending a couple months alongside these classmates of mine I realized the school year was almost over. In my mind, I had a definition and their lives figured out in my head for each kid in my class. Names like class clown, shy person, goth boy, geek, rich boy, barbie girl, computer techy, mean girl etc. went through my head as I eyed each row of kids in our class. I then thought of myself, I wonder how people stereotype me, they think they really know me. I look fine on the outside I wear a smile, laugh, joke, act confident but I didn’t really feel this way. At that moment, my thoughts turned to an experience I had earlier that year.

I noticed this girl at school if I passed her in the halls between classes.  I noticed her but she probably didn’t notice me. Since the first time I ever saw her I didn’t like her and I hadn’t ever met her. I was jealous of her, when I saw her she seemed to be just so perfect. Her happiness, her physique, her friends, just everything about her. I put this idea in my head that somehow, she was better than most girls because of these qualities. She was everything a typical teenager would like to look like and act. As second term ended I was excited to start some new classes. I walked in to last period of the day, it was my first day in this new class. I went to sit down when the ‘girl’ walked in, to surprisingly sit right next to me. I quickly noticed myself sitting up straighter and against my will I complimented her outfit. I honestly think I did this so that she would notice me and somehow acknowledge and respect my presence. The next time in class our teacher assigned us to do a group project, I quickly knew who I would pick for this. After me and two other friends decided to be a group the ‘girl’ approached us and asked if she could join our group. I accepted but acted cocky about it. Each class as we worked on the project more and more we all started to talk. One day as we were working on this project the ‘girl’ started talking about personal experiences. After a while she started getting more and more personal. She started talking about her insecurities. As I listened to the things she was saying I couldn’t help but feel very compassionate. I related to so many things she said on a personal level. In fact, most of the things she described I dealt with as well. As we continually kept talking about these common problems we shared I almost felt like I wanted to be her friend. As you can guess we are friends now and I don’t feel a bit how I felt about her before I got to know her.

*Back to the frozen classroom*
As I played that experience in my head I couldn’t help but relate it to my current situation. I thought I had everyone’s life figured out but honestly how true were those judgements. I thought of a great idea I could have so many friends and people could feel so much better about themselves, accepted, loved, and happier-- only if we knew how people truly felt. This sparked another idea what if we wore feelings like a piece of clothing. A feeling crown… everyone, everywhere. It would be plain; clear to see. No more judging just true feelings that you would wear everyday like a crown. No one ashamed everyone just honest and more aware. Think about how this would change school, work, the world. The feelings could be different everyday but the point is that people could read them and it would provide understanding which would change everything. What if people had common feelings to others on their crown. They could find people with their same challenges and could help each other and make a friend. The question is what feelings and thoughts would you have on your feeling crown. “I don’t have anyone to sit with at lunch”, “Right now I feel very sad”, “My mother just passed away”, “I struggle with depression”, “I’m shy”, “Just want a friend”, “I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night”, “I love to be in nature”, “I feel to short”, “I feel fat”, “I love reading”, “I want to feel accepted”, “I don’t feel beautiful”, “In need of an adventure buddy”, “Who wants to hang out?”, “I use humor to cope with my hardships”. I feel that if people only knew the unspoken there would be more action. I know if someone wore a feeling crown I would want to help them with whatever it would say because it is just pure feelings, plainly written, no guessing, no stereotyping, no feelings of being left out, just honesty, love, understanding. There would be so much more friendship in this world with less hate and more love.

As I sat invisibly at my desk I visualized our school with everyone wearing a feeling crown. I walk down the hall and see so many people talking to each other. The “geek” laughing with “Barbie girl”. “Rich boy” discussing feelings to “shy girl”. No cliques, no faking, just being themselves and true relationships being made.

*The bell rings class is dismissed*