Darling, you’ll never be alone! Like april said, if you ever need to talk, you can always PM me!
But i know what it feels like. My dress/fashion sense, music taste, choices in life was completely different to all my friends… But I got a new job and made new friends .. friends who didn’t care about what music i was into, what i looked like, what clothes i wear … and we get along so much better then my old friends who i tried to change for… we never really had much in common anyway.. and me changing to try be mates with them, just made it worse. Just be yourself. You never know who you’re gonna meet soon! You may meet some fantastic people who share the same interests as you.

:group_hug

well said sista..love the Red hair…

Yeah you should take pride in being a bit different from people that you dont really want to be like anyway and think are a bit boring! Perhaps in the longer term you could move somewhere else? Lifes just one big adventure, if somethings not working out, have the courage and inspiration and creativity to change it! Good luck. :group_hug

Why are you waiting till September? If you’re unhappy go and do something fun!

I agree with all of the guys above- it’s only when you start living the way you want to that you truly start living. I’ve had a very similar experience over the past few years, I think it’s something that happens when you spend a lot of time with people doing rugs…… after while you realise that it’s probably the only thing you have in common with them.

The greatest day of my life was when I realised that I didn’t have to not do things because my friends didn’t want to. If no-one wants to come with you to see a band- fuck em, go anyway and meet loads of new people.

I moved to south London a few months back, and fucking love it. I’m going to see bands, listening to whatever music I want to, and not really giving a fuck. It’s all about just getting out there.

You’re lucky, at least you’re in London, try living in a small town in the middle of no-where, where a K-habit becomes a hobby.

The sad thing is that since I moved, I’ve had phone calls from maybe 3 or 4 of my ‘mates’, but it’s their loss not mine.

So what are you waiting for? You’re living in the greatest city in the world, with pretty much anything you could want to do on your door step, and you’re waiting till Sept for things to get better?

There’s lots of us on here who’ve had very similar experiences- don’t worry, it gets better. The turning point is when you realsie you can do something about it.

If you’re into books, here’s a few that have helped me:

Seven Habits of Effective people- Stephen Covey
How to make friends and influence people- Dale Carneige

Or, failing that- stick on some music that you love, turn it right up and dance around! Here’s one that always cheers me up:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAZ_D2ebYbI&feature=related[/yt]

I’ve had similar all my teen – adult life,
I lost ‘friends’ when I was 14 as they sat me down and said I had to change the way I dressed or they didnt want to hang with me any more,
I told em to go fuck em selves and didnt speak to them again as they wernt real friends anyway to say something like that and I dont want to speak to shallow people anyway – but it really hurt at the time

I’ve calmed down alot in the way I dress / look as I’ve got older but retained my individuality,
I’m 32 and senior at work and still get asked regularily if I’m the ‘student’ 😉

when I had pink hair I got started on several times, people shouting out of cars abuse at me and then I’d get little old ladies comming up to me saying they loved it – so its swings and roundabouts (I live in suburbia with a lot of narrow minded people)

My bro is 40 and still pierced and tattooed up and wears skirts and stuff – so I guess it runs in the family!

but dont let em get you down, have confidence in yourself and the way you are :bounce_fl

TBH I think this is happening to everyone from this sort of community, although it does seem that for youths London is actually becoming a lot more divided than provincial areas, all mixture of all that “gang / representing your ends” mentality and American “High school” culture creeping in…

Ironically I did the exact opposite move to Binge, from London/SE England to East Anglia, and although life is way better here its a slightly different issue for me, there are “like minded people” in the region, and for all the tactical mistakes of Norfolk ravers they can be a diverse and friendly bunch at their best!

I don’t have too many problems in the street or at work, I’m just a normal British Asian lad and although there are racist rednecks about they are still a minority…

But I still feel isolated because of age – What I do find though is that round here people start really young with parties and then burn out/turn their back on them by their early 20s now – especially with the cops being a bit harsher nowadays..

I still love raves but find it slightly unnerving that at the outdoor events I am very often one of the the oldest persons there, although I know a fair few of the older heads they’ve all settled down and had kids or understandably don’t want to take risks with cops etc. at illegal events, so I tend to go out less these days…

incidentally if you live in West London, it may be worth checking out the SE England party scene around Reading/Oxford area as its still just about going…

:love::love::love: + hug for felicity:group_hug

Also if its any consolation it wasn’t better in the 70s/80s (I grew up then!) and those Japanese kids are only going to get 2-3 years of “freedom” to dress like that.

The lucky ones are just going to end up sat behind desks or in labs at places like Toshiba, Sony and Panasonic doing 12-16 hour workdays to design our new laptops and MP3 players, and they will be back in normal suits rather than trying to dress like cartoon characters…

The unlucky ones are gonna think they’ve made it big in movies, but only end up in cheap porno done by some sleazy 50 year old man, and then when it ends up online and their horrified parents find out and disown them they will end up getting into worse addictions/mental health issues and even gassing themselves with a portable barbecue in their bedsits – this is the side of Japanese / East Asian street/alternative culture they don’t often tell you about… (ironically its now more chilled out in South China anyway!)

Yet here in England if you ignore the jealousy of your own agegroup you can in fact get away with being “different” for the rest of your life provided you are otherwise a decent person….

thats exactly what free parties used to be like (and TBH some still are at least outside London – although London’s crowd is mixed I’ve noticed the people from different nationalities now often stay in their own cliques (although it could just be language barriers too)

for all its faults the East Anglian rave scene was very multicultural despite all the wider social pressures. I came here in 2006 thinking “bet I’m the only Asian at the stack” but no, there were people from all across the world at every party, more so than in SE England!

Some crews just outside London are like that as well (well one particular one has to be as half their crew members are from Europe :wink:)

I think you will find your college crowd fairly diverse and openminded (but it will also get fairly competitive when people start looking for contracts etc in later years)

first time I’ve been called uncle on here, that must mean I am gettting old lol..

most of this “wisdom” is only from experience of being a young Londoner in the 90s – people do sometimes ask me for advice but tends to be more about technical stuff these days, round here (East Anglia) a lot of people are stubborn and don’t want to hear the “bad news” which was a shame as had they listened to “our generation” (i.e me, Biotech etc) we’d still be having free parties where people got more than 2 hours and kept hold of their rigs…

i’d be careful what sort of free parties you go to as some inner London ones are really sketchy and not all that enjoyable (unless you enjoy watching violent crime happen in front of your eyes) – but I’ve hinted where the better ones tend to be 😉

Your course sounds wicked, definate potential for meeting peeps too.