My friend, Amanda, had been into the rave scene for some time, and had talked about all the parties she had been to. I had seen a special about raves on one of those boring news shows, but what was being said, made raves seem negative, when my friend made them sound positive. I needed to see for myself who was right. My friend had asked me if I would be interested in experiencing a rave with her, but warned me about a lot of the things that went on at the raves. With what little knowledge I knew about raves, and what went on behind its closed doors, I decided to go with her to a rave about a year ago to see what actually goes on. I did not know what I was getting myself into. I regret ever having such a thought as to experience the rave scene, and I now know why I will never want to go again.
I walked into the crowded room and had a shocked initial reaction. There was about three hundred people there of all different races, ages, and sizes packed into a warehouse that looked like it had the space for only about half of the sweaty bodies that were there. It seemed as if they had been going to raves for years. People looked so comfortable with their environment and the people surrounding them. They did not have one discerning bone in their body. It was a different type of atmosphere inside the raves than from the outside walls. Within the outside world, I used to see all types of racism, whereas inside the four walls, it looked as if everybody was an equal. I noticed differences in behavior between people at the rave and myself. They seemed as...