Many of you are probably familiar with the recent film, Perks of Being a Wallflower, starring the ever popular, Emma Watson. If you’re not yet acquainted with this movie, I suggest putting your studying on hold and popping this one in the DVD player. This film, as you all may know, is based on the short novel by Stephen Chbosky. The story follows a fifteen-year-old, Charlie, through his first year of high school as he makes friends with the senior crowd and experiences his first love. As the title hints, Charlie is a wallflower of sorts – a quiet, outsider who mainly keeps to himself, all while trying to make sense of his place in the world. After reading the book and watching the film, I began to wonder, are there actually any perks of being a wallflower? Below is a list of a few circumstances in which I think being a wallflower would be pretty perk-y.
- You can catch up on all the dirty drama floating around because no one will be too worried about speaking ill of others in your presence.
- Need use of your favorite old prom dress? When you’re a wallflower no one is too concerned with what you’re wearing (or not wearing????).
- You have the opportunity to truly be whom or what you want to be. In being someone who is easily overlooked, you can be whoever you want. A superhero? The fifth Beatle? Einstein’s prodigy? It’s up to you, wallflower.
- You have the ability to surprise people. If no one really notices you, doing something even slightly thrilling will gather much more attention then if your non-wallflower counterpart exhibited the same behavior.
- As a wallflower, not too many of your peers will be expecting a lot from you. So, if you want to exceed people’s expectations, and if you’re quite intelligent, shock the hell out of everyone around you when you get an acceptance letter from your last-minute application choice of Harvard.