I am writing this in response to the article by Eric Osborne, "On Being Strange," which was published in the November issue. I feel that there are a lot of people who share the many alternative thoughts with Eric. As a high school student, I can understand the rejection and prejudiced attitudes towards these different thoughts. I also don't see a major difference between racial prejudice and the prejudice towards alternative, or "strange," teens.

When I entered high school, I tried my hardest to be accepted and to establish a group of friends with whom I could feel comfortable. By sophomore year I had found them. There were fifteen of us. What segregated us from the rest of our class were our tastes and views in music, politics, environmental issues, and clothing. We did not go out of our way to be different, we went out of our way to express ourselves. By junior year we would walk down the hall and receive dirty looks from some and quiet hellos from others. My response to all was just a normal hello. We didn't curse them in another language, or pull a knife on them. By the end of junior year other students in my class began to realize that we were people whose thoughts did make sense if heard out, and some even gave our music a chance. Now I am a senior and still rejected by some, but now I feel my group of friends and I are respected by many.

We've come a long way since freshman year.

We've come a long way since people started being "strange."n