Maturity.

I have referenced this term in many of my blogs, and my definition of maturity may be completely different from the next person's, but frankly, I do not care.
Maturity is an ever-changing state of being. I do not believe that someone is ever considered to be completely mature. I think that one can be mature in instances they are faced with, or grow to be more mature than they once were, but being mature is something that I do not think is something one obtains. There are certain things though, with which we must all strive to do in life.
One thing we must attempt to do is not care about the opinion of others. I do believe that we should all care a little bit, because you should always be questioning your character, but in regards to the individuals who spread false statements, one should think little of them. The saying "take it with a grain of salt" is something everyone, especially in high school, should go through life saying to themselves. There are certain opinions with which you should care about, employers, teachers, parents, the ones who will not make things up about you. The others' opinions, you should take very lightly and try to not think twice about them. As I said, maturity is something you will always aim for, so not caring is something that is very difficult in high school. Especially with the introduction of social media and whispers in the hall which are unavoidable. Its something to work at.
Another thing that you should work at is your character. We should not care what irrelevant others think of us when they have false information, but if we are constantly working at making ourselves better people, improving our character, hopefully they will have less to taunt you with. To improve your character, you must first establish your personal morals and what you stand for, which can be a whole other process itself. This is what I believe a lot of people are attempting to do in high school, find what they want to support, and what things they think are not okay. Who you really are as a person, is what you should concentrate on, not what others say. Those that I mentioned earlier, the ones whose opinions you should care about, are the ones who will not make up things about you and look at who you are based on what they have seen you done. They have reached that point on the maturity scale. I cannot emphasize how important your character is, you are the one in control of it and you should be your biggest critic of it. After you establish who you want to be, making decisions will become so much easier to make.
Different situations require different levels of appropriateness. Something one needs to work on when attempting to be mature is knowing where the line is in the situations they are presented with. Some may call it "having a filter", but knowing what is and is not okay to say in certain interactions is a big step in maturity.
Overall, if someone is actively attempting to be a better person and become more mature, they are one step ahead of everyone around them that are not. These people are few and far between in high school in my opinion, but that should not stop you from attempting to be one.
JSL