The biggest fads that were around when I was in high school was unfortunately the soulja boy dance, the chicken noodle soup dance, the dances were incredibly ridiculous. Yeah, I know those dances by heart. I deny and regret NOTHING! Not the point though. At the time everyone was like really these are our dances? But eventually people went with them and made fools of themselves.

 The dance scene and pop culture scene was wild. Speaking of the pop culture scene, high school was when Lil Jon became famous for...well being him. Just imagine in every classroom one or two high school students yelling "WHAT", "YEAH" or "OKAAAAYY." Was I one of those kids? Also, not the point. That type of culture blew UP during my high school year and I'm not even sure if I am proud of that ahah. A lot of people in my school tried to show their dance skills by dancing the complete random dances of the time and looking back at that I feel awful that those were our songs.

 I remember 50 cent being big with In Da Club, Linkin Park with their second album and the song I ain't Neva Scared. Amazing songs! Proud to say I still have most of that music on my ipod. Speaking of which, Ipods became huge around that time too. You're welcome world!

Some of the fads during my high school years were simple and not too outrageous. One thing I remember most was everyone always getting light in the hallways between classes. There was only about 2 1/2 - 3 min between classes, but every single time the bell rang, a group of kids would always find each other to huddle together to get light. I thought that was so pointless! 

Another popular fad was sneakers. Everyone had the newest nikes or the newest jordans. At one point, it felt like the whole school wore the same pair of red, black and white nikes. It didn't stop at sneakers either. If your sneakers had 3 colors in them, you had to wear something with all 3 colors in your outfit. Sometimes people wore orange, yellow and red, just to match with their sneakers. I thought that was pointless too. 

During the winter, the beef and brocoli (brown and green) timbs were in. I thought those timbs were the worst color combination. There were a lot of really nice timbs out at the time too like the blue and white ones or the red and white ones. Either way, chances were there would be tons of people wearing the same pair! 

Although I had a few fresh pairs of sneakers, I stuck to the simple colors like black, white, blue or gray. Other than nikes and jordans, I loved my converse! They were so simple and they went with all the dark clothes I wore. I listened to a lot of rock music, so it was necessary to have band shirts and cargo pants to go with them. 

Some of the music I listened to was Breaking Benjamin, 3 Doors Down, 30 Seconds to Mars and my favorite at the time, Avril Lavigne. In high school, no one really listened to what I listened to. The music that was most popular was rap music and music that had dance moves related to them. Overall, as time passed, I'm glad the fads passed too! 

My High School's Fad Experience

I’ve been having a difficult time remembering the fads that I experienced when I was in high school on Long Island but I chose this subject because I feel it is more interesting to discuss than writing about my reasons for choosing UAlbany. Why did I choose UAlbany? Well, why not?! It’s a great school and there are a lot of opportunities available. (:

While trying to remember what was trendy in my high school, I realized an interesting parallel in the music industry. I scanned the Billboard’s Hot 100 list for this week and Ne-Yo’s “Let Me Love You” is on the chart and then, when I looked for a random week in one of the years that I attended high school, Mario’s “Let Me Love You” topped that week’s chart! What a crazy co-incidence!

The fads from my high school are now considered so outdated and artificial… I’m kind of embarrassed of thinking about their impact on my life. I think, two fads that I remember clearly would be: wearing pajamas to school and wearing Uggsor another brand of fur-insulated boots. In my high school, some students made fun of the boots and called them “Boots with the fur”. I think wearing these boots as a trendy statement has lasted longer in Upstate New York than on Long Island and it’s probably based on how they can keep one’s feet pretty warm and that’s great for Upstate’s weather.

Fads are an ephemeral aspect of your life. They are enjoyable and the silly ways to connect with people because they become the common factor in our social connection. I think, a great analogy to a fad is to relate it to cotton candy. Cotton candy is light, quickly dissolves, fun while it lasted, in contemplation of the cotton candy you wondered why you ate it and you may not be satisfied with it especially if you are not full from it but then you say to yourself, “…I had cotton candy”. I think, that’s exactly what fads are. Now replace “cotton candy”, with a fad of today that you are experiencing and you will see this is an ideal formula to understanding how silly yet satisfying a fad can be.

You may think the fad is “cool” because being “in the moment” is the “cool experience”. Something that lasts long tends to be “warm” but something “cool” tends to have a short shelf-life. Ironically, when I was in high school, Paris Hilton was today's Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton had a catch-phrase of “That’s hot.”

You see, fads do not have to make sense! Just like cotton candy!!

Another fad that I just remembered is when guys wore two polo shirts and matched the colors to their sneaker's color theme. And yes, they “popped” their collar.

That was my high school. Those were our fads.  Oh, and MySpace was growing to be popular amongst some students.

Fads can be fun but as you can see, the memory of them can be quite embarrassing.

 In my high school there were many fads and trends that grouped us together by nationality, gender, or just personal interests. I remember when you walked out of class the Jamaican crew would always be posted up against the walls, talking their lingo with their tight pants and hair braided up into a ponytail. 

Then on your way to class you would be stopped by a crowd with someone getting light and the crowd clapping saying ahh ah ah ahh and then everybody would scream heyy when the dancer did something big.  Soon enough, someone would come in the circle with the chicken noodle soup, and if they didn’t do anything special by the first two rounds, everyone would just walk away. 

 For fashion, there were so much more fads for the guys than the girls.  For guys they had this whole new fad of the nerd look.  They started wearing thick rimmed glasses, tight pants, and plaid shirts, with a Mohawk haircut.  The fly guys would have on Pradas, Maurys, and maybe Nike boots in the winter; either way it was important to have on expensive shoes. Girls did share some of these trends like the plaid shirts and the switch from wide leg to straight jeans with the newest Jordans.  We did have the Uggs fad, which everyone hated but eventually everyone wore.  

In summertime, it would switch up to tights and long shirts with sandals shoes similar to Toms. Most of our trends were not originals, but things we saw growing up as 90’s babies.  I remember a day could not pass by without a freestyle battle.  Guys would come up with flows like LL (LL Cool J), and even DMX.  Sometimes they would talk about someone clothes when they just weren’t keeping up.  Or a guy would try to sweet talk a girl whose attention he’s been trying to get all semester, and then someone silly would have nothing else to say and start rapping about living environment class and make the teacher feel cool.  

There were a lot of fun times in high school, especially with the smaller classes, where we really got to know each other after sticking together as freshman.  There was always laughter and so many great memories. 

Throughout my high school years, there were many different trends and fads that emerged.  I remember one was a hair style that consisted of colored bangs, where girls would dye their bang one color and the rest of their hair would be a different color.  

For example, there was a girl from my school who had a turquoise bang, but the rest of her hair was black.  I liked the idea of it and I wanted to dye my bang purple and leave the rest of my hair its natural color, brown.  I remember telling my mother my idea, and she threatened to cut off my hair if I dared to do such.  I am glad I listened to her and left my hair alone as such a fad seems completely ridiculous to me now. 

 Another fad was matching your clothes exactly down to the very last color.  I remember walking around my high school with a regular pair of jeans on, but my shirt may have three colors (example: pink, white and blue).  I would then wear three head bands in my hair, one pink, one white and one blue.  My belt would most likely be one of those colors, and my sneakers would have all three colors in them.  Again, words cannot express how grateful I am that those colorful days are behind me. 

 I think that I personally believed that such fads were cool at the time, because everyone was doing it.  Fads can be extremely powerful, yet consist of the most ridiculous ideas.  It takes one “cool” person to pull it off correctly, and everyone wants to look just as cool doing such.  I believe that was the case for me back in my high school days.  There were many of other fads throughout my high school years, but the most memorable ones for me were the colorful fads mentioned.