Being accepted

Everybody knows that fads come and go. Certain things become really popular for a short amount of time and then before you know it, fade out and are forgotten. The most recent fad amongst kids these days (from preschool to high school) is the Silly Bandz animal bracelets. Those of you with kids might be familiar with them. They are colorful rubber band like bracelets that you wear on your wrist or in your hair. However, when you take them off your wrist they turn into the shapes of animals (or stars or letters or people depending on what kind you buy). Well the kids have gotten more and more into these little bracelets over the last couple of weeks. It is to the point now that almost all the kids have at least a few on their wrists if not 20. They will trade them with each other when they get sick of their own shapes or just take them off in class to show off the shapes that they have and their friends don't. Today, I was finally accepted into their little world. 3 of my 9th graders gave me bracelets today. I now have a kangaroo, an eagle, and a giraffe bracelet. They are so popular that later in the day when my 8th graders came in, I noticed them whispering amongst themselves: "Look, Miss Wilson has animal bracelets." It officially gave me an element of cool.
I can't think of any similar fad from when I was in high school but I do remember pogs from elementary school. Can anybody else think of any good fads from the past?

You can never leave

Yesterday I was standing on the edge of the ocean. It's amazing to me how many different colors of blue there really are. On one hand there is the blue-green color of the water nearest the shore in the shallow areas. Then farther out there is a distinct line where the shallows drop away into the much deeper, dark blue of the open ocean. Then a little ways out that dark blue meets the lighter but still vivid blue of a cloudless Florida sky. I let my toes dig into the sand, and the waves wash up around my ankles as I admired the beauty of the ocean, the palm trees swaying on the beach behind me, and the feeling of the hot sun beating down on my shoulders. And I thought to myself, I would have a hard time ever leaving this. I own 10 bikinis and not one winter coat. 2 years ago the thought of staying in Florida would have horrified me. Now, I don't know if I could leave. Life never ceases to surprise me.