You go to school in your finest outfit. You feel like yourself. Your hair looks perfect, your clothes fit just right, and you feel like you’re on top of the world.

Then, all of a sudden, you hear the most wretched yapping known to man.

“You look like you escaped the morgue, buddy. You look like you don’t even shower.”

Crap.

Here at Doherty, a ton of people choose to express themselves every day, and in countless different ways. It’s not uncommon to see someone wearing their newest Jordans, or someone wearing their newest band tee. Each student here has striking differences. Especially in the cafeteria, in which you can find people of countless different aesthetics and subcultures sitting at the same tables. It’s not particularly difficult to find where you belong. Listen to Damian from Mean Girls, “You’ll be judged on sight and made to fit, so find a clique and stick with it. Say, where do you belong?” (even though he was a bit of a discriminator himself, no spoilers though.)

However, a common issue has rapidly spread across Doherty. The hatred and fear of standing out. Students commonly see certain styles as “cringe,” or even see people wearing them as stupid or annoying. Ian Brodeur, a punk, has (unfortunate) experience with this. He explained that the reason for the hate was, “because it doesn’t fit how [the people who dislike the style] feel.” When I asked him if this would ever make him change styles, he said, “No, because it’s the purpose of the style.”

This is an important point because people don’t realize that the purpose of a lot of subcultures, particularly alternative ones, is to be different. It’s not for other people, it’s for themselves. It makes people feel seen. It makes people feel accepted in their community, and that’s incredibly important. Leave your hatred for the people spewing the hate, not the people who are affected by it. Be. You. Be who you want to be.