Goth Community: Day 1-How Did You Come Across the Subculture?

I first came across this month long questioning regarding Goth; personal experiences, and expectations, over at the Ultimate Goth Guide after she linked back to Juliet's Lace.

I decided however, to wait until the beginning of the month to begin this challenge.

So here goes!

How Did I Come Across the Subculture?

Well, it is a bit hard for me to fully remember how I came across Alt culture. In some ways, it took me seeing people dressed "differently" to really understand that that was an option. Other ways, it was musical choices and researching spirituality. Even further certain websites were helpful. I like to think it all came together fairly easily for me to understand. I always had tendencies growing up; i'd draw halloween items on napkins, I loved rodents, I bobbed along to Tim Burton films, and named spiders in the house. As a child, I hated people, and I hated clothes. I was an extreme tom boy, I wanted nothing to do with pink, frills, or anything that you are conditioned to think of as "normal" or "girly". Upon reaching 10, I saw a woman at walmart who was dressed in PVC pants, long black hair, a green top, and white as a ghost. Instantly, all I could do was look at her in awe, like seeing something you didn't think existed passing across your vision. My Grandma tried hurrying me away, saying that girl was a "freak", but I didn't care. I made my decision right then and there, that I wanted to be part of whatever that girl was part of. I wanted to look like her. I started out listening to a lot of Marilyn Manson, AFI, and the like. Manson was actually how I first heard the term "Goth", in which I set forth on the internet to find out more about it. Two websites that really helped me when I first began cultivating the ideas of being part of the Subculture or Co-culture were: Gothic Subculture-this was my first real insight into Goth, I went through a lot of crappy websites before finding this one. Next up, was Gothic Miss Manners, she taught me all about etiquette, and how to deal with people making fun of you or trying to harass you. She really, was like a giant shoulder for me to lean on when I felt lost, this was back when her book was a collection of posts on her website from concerned, and lost Goths. I really like to think she had a huge impact on me when I read through her posts for direction. She was like a Gothic Faery God Mother. Around this same time, I started researching spirituality and religion, attempting to learn more and possibly find one that made sense to me. So, as I said, a lot of it came together fairly easily for me, it was like a snowball effect.

Me last Friday waiting to go to school.