Kindergarten.  The first day of school.  You paint, you learn to spell, you learn your numbers, you learn to read.  Not a care in the world.  Every kid is a friend to one another.  Life is good.

First Grade.  The groups have already started forming.  I just so happened to be friends with the 'popular' group of kids.  Did this make me popular?  I don't know.  I didn't care.  I was happy.  New kid comes in.  Everyone likes him.  Naturally he gets adapted into the popular group.  He becomes my friend.  Little did I know that he was not my friend, but my replacement.  I am outcast from that group.

Second Grade.  I found new friends.  Cool friends.  We were a good group.  Too bad we didn't last.

Third Grade.  The groups develop into something more serious.  People have finally started being separated into cool or un-cool.

Fourth Grade.  New kid shows up.  I make friends with new kid.  He is probably what you would label a Geek.  It was fun.  I decided I belonged with the Geeks.  Though, I never thought of myself as a Geek.

Fifth Grade.  New groups emerge.  Kids start claiming to have sex.  They are the 'popular' group.  I start hanging out with more people that you could call Nerds or Geeks.  

Sixth Grade.  Labels like Slut and Goth are formed.  Kids with mental illness are put into groups and called Freaks or Retards.  I meet 2 new friends.  We only remained friends until the end of the year.

Seventh Grade.  A kid comes out to the world that he is gay.  He is instantly given the label of Fag.  I go for a new look in clothing.  I am still hanging out with the Geeks and the Nerds but I still do not consider myself one of them.

Eighth Grade.  Separation is as bad as it comes.  The 'popular' group is constantly making fun of the Freaks, the Retards, the Goths, the Fags, anyone who is different.  Even the Nerds and the Geeks.  So why am I not recieving any criticism?  I hang out with the Geeks.  Or do I not?

Ninth Grade.  Groups grow in numbers.  There is now a Prep group.  Goths can now hang out with other Goths.  Nerds with other Nerds.  People still get picked on more than ever, but now the people who are thought of as lower actually have the idea of fighting back.  Things could get ugly.  But thankfully they don't.  The 'popular' group has finally split.  They have become Jocks and Cheerleaders.  I finally take a long look at what my friends of second grade have become.  To use labels one girl is a Slut, one girl is a Druggie, two girls are Jocks, one guy is a Punk, and one guy is a Jock.  But where do I fit in?  What have I become?

Tenth Grade.  Groups are the same.  I start realizing the effect of hate in this community of labels.  I come out to select people as being gay.  Yet I am accepted.  Unlike the boy in seventh grade.  I am not given the label of Fag.  Though, I finally achieve a label.  All this longing and searching for a label--and I am now a Prep.  How did this happen?  I am no Prep.  That is when I realized that to other people I may be.  It isn't what I think about myself because I can think that I am a Jock or I can think that I am a Geek.  I can be a Goth, I can be a Fag, or even a Punk.  I can be any label that I want to be.  Whatever label I choose to be.  I wonder why I was never made fun of, when all my friends were.  And now I know.  I grew up being a part of almost every single one of these groups.  And the people of them knew me.  They had nothing against me accept the fact that I used to be their friends.  I am finally given the answer I have been looking for.  I have finally found my label.  And that label is Me.