Rave Life

To most, the rave scene appears to be a multitude of teenagers doing drugs and dancing to music all the time when they could really be finding more productive things to do with their time. There is so much more to it than that. Ravers, for one, take pride in being called and known as ravers. This same principle doesn't apply to other genres of people: jocks never vocally refer to themselves as jocks just as hipsters find it insulting to be referred to as a hipster.

Ravers are the kids that were the weird ones growing up. They had different views than most of their peers and some embraced this, treating their weirdness as a positive quality that separated them from any other individual. Others saw it as a negative thing: they felt isolated and worried that maybe this weirdness wasn't welcome and should be morphed and shifted until that individual fit into the norm. These are the kids that suffered the most socially, always second guessing themselves, always wondering if they really should change who they are. The rave scene is a place for all these kids to come together and to find friends that have experienced this very isolation and have now discovered a way of overcoming it.

These people can be considered modern-day hippies in a way. Peace, love, unity and respect are the factors that bind ravers together just as hippies bonded over the celebration of these same principles. They are the factors that drive their need to meet and bring others into their world, into a different viewpoint. They have finally found a place where their weirdness is not only welcome but encouraged. The love and care they receive from other ravers in their community can only be compared to what one receives in a family. This is why many groups of friends in the rave community begin to call themselves a family. Within this, fake marriages and sibling relationships, among others, are formed. It gives people a chance to put familiar trust in their friends or even strangers sometimes.

What distinguishes the rave scene most is that almost everyone involved believes in the same goal: equality and love for all. Being in the presence of many ravers, it is difficult to not feel the sincerity of everything they say and do, the reliability of their actions and simply the knowledge that being in this family, an individual will always have the support they need in anything whether it be emotional or physical. I am proud to call myself a raver and I only hope others can eventually discover the happiness and comfort that I have discovered in these people.