Elder goth here, with an important public service announcement to all of you who are newer goths, or goth-curious.

Thirty something years ago I went to my first goth night. I had been listening to the basics for a couple years, not really aware that there was a scene. For the most part, I had just been an alt kid. I spent some time in the punk scene, and finally made some friends who were goth, and started hanging out with them more, and really finding that goth really clicked with me.

Anyway, some friends were going to an all ages goth night, and I wore my “Love will Tear us Apart” shirt, and some black jeans. We got there a bit early, and as people were filtering some girl who was wearing the same shirt looked and me and in a totally disgusted way rolled her eyes and said to friends something about how she couldn’t believe that some dickweed kid was wearing the same shirt.

That really sucked, but I didn’t let it phase me too much. I kept going and tried really hard to be the gawthiest person around. Fast forward two or three years and I am so well known in the scene (big scene in that city) that as an underage person I had no issues getting into 21 clubs and drinking drinks at the bar to my heart’s delight.

I had a great time and had lots of friends. The reality though was that the people who ended up being real friends, would have just as cool to me the first time I ever walked into a club in my joy division shirt. The reason is that they are actually cool people. Many people are not. If someone is an ass to you because you are new, or asking questions that think you should know the answer to, pay no mind. Those people are truly not worth knowing. There are a ton of shitty people in the scene, and you DO NOT need their approval. Don’t worry about other people. Enjoy the music, and dance, even if you don’t know how. No one worth knowing will ever look down on you, because WE HAVE ALL BEEN NEW at one time or another.

Hope this helps at least one person. If it does it was worth it.