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Please Don't Pick Me, Please Don't Pick Me, Please Don't Pick Me.....

It's my first day. I watch as the crowd exchanges cheers and jeers back and forth each time a new kid gets picked. I look back and forth from team to team and wonder with whom will I get stuck. It's my turn. They call my name again. Reluctantly, I rise and stroll to my fate. Taking my time. Dragging my feet so as to defer the agony that surely awaits. Now, it's time. I approach the stage and take the seat. Onto my head the Sorting Hat goes. And now.....I will forever be....a member of the house of.......

Ok, so I'm not a character in the Harry Potter series. J. K. Rowling apparently did not even think to write me into the script. How could this be? Must be a mistake, because I surely feel like a character. Only the screen play is Reality. The setting, Life. The stage hands, those who set the norms. The players, you and me. And now.....Action.

We are taught from an early age to be careful who we hang with, else we'll get a reputation. If you lie with dogs, after all. Well, you know what happens. But we all know that no two dogs are a like. And unlike having your fate lie in the wisdom of a sorting hat, your fate, and how you are perceived, lies within. You don't have to wait to be picked for the right team. Just join it. You shouldn't have to be given a script. Just write it. For if you wait to be picked and for the script to be written, you will likely be disappointed. And likely stereotyped right into a team to which you thought you did not belong.

It is easy to stereotype. There are way too many opportunities for that. How many times have we prefaced a statement about that "crazy" relative with, "God love 'em, but..." Why do we do that? Well, quite plainly, we don't want to be lumped in with "that lot." We don't want to be stereotyped, ourselves. Especially when this stereotyping means getting lumped together with a crowd we despise. So, perhaps we would do each other best to not lump each other in with that lot. That will just lead to each of us thinking the other is on the wrong team, but in reality, we could be fighting for each other instead of with each other.

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