How to show your friends you're a QUEENFAN!

And I should know how that feels. Being a teenage Queen fan, it is pretty hard to 'explain' your obsession to other people. But yes, I did accomplish the biting of the bullet in year 8, when I decided to completly cover my locker with Freddie Mercury and Queen pictures from the internet. Because I had a strong force of mates behind me I had nothing to fear: people just took it as a large novel part of my personality. A very large part. With that, I took my pearls of wisdom to Health class and showed the stupid bitch of a teacher what I've got.

I couldn't believe it. The teacher was actually slagging me off because my friend said I liked Queen! How dare the bitch! You know what I did? I screamed at her. I stood up for my rights as a freelite person and said "Listen, you're not going to wreck your life by letting other people spread rumours about the band I care about." Or something to that affect. So then what happened? I drew an even bigger crowd of followers, but not followers, people that admired me because I stood up for myself. I didn't follow the crowd, or what was popular. I didn't hide behind a pot plant and hope the subject would just go away. No one had ever done something like that, especially in year 8.

(picture of my friend, Natalie, standing next to my Queen-pictured locker [last day of school, 1998])

I guess all of that changed when I moved schools this year. I went to an all girls, private school closer to home. It was a really small school and it had a bad reputation of being the bitchiest of the private schools. I wasn't ready, to say the least, to show them what I was made of on my first few weeks.

I went off to a bad start. The group that was assigned to me [to look after me, the NEW girl] had dismissed me on orientation day and they never took me back. That was hard. Queen was probably the last thing on my mind, after all, if these screwed up girls had just dumped me for no reason, just imagine what they would do if they found out about Queen? The girls at the school weren't as bitchy as I expected, though there were some f**ked up cows there. So much better than Canterbury Girls, though.

After the realisation, I guess I lay low for a while until I made friends with a really huge group afterwards. They still don't know about Queen though. I've brought it up once or twice in music class or something like that, but nothing to the extent of what I think about. I've had to bottle it all in for 3 terms, and I still haven't told them yet.

Most of them seem like perky pricks who would never appreciate fine music, I wouldn't be taken to show them anyway. The group is so large that it doesn't seem that anyone appreciates anyone much, anyway. I'm not upset by it, but more adapted to the environment of it. It's so different because last time, people adapted to me and now I have to adapt to people.

So what can you learn about reading this? Here's the list on how to show your friends you're a Queen fan.

1. Listen to Greatest Hits on your walkman and ask if they like what they hear.

[suggested from Lauren @ canterbury. She also says not to say who they are, because they would be open to interpretation.)

2. Start bleeding it into conversation.

[suggested by me. Take it bit by bit so it isn't as obvious as it is.]

3. Put a picture up in your locker.

[don't go over the top a'la me.]

4. Start to hum songs under your breath in Science. Make it a recognizable song like 'We Are the Champions' that is sure to please.

[maybe if it was a perfect world, he/she would recognize it and start screaming : I LOVE THAT SONG!!]

5. Tell them, straight out.

[suggested by my 'analitical' brother. Maybe this might be the SMARTEST!! one!]

6. Wear a black Queen tee-shirt (yes! one of those yucky baggy ones!) on a free dress day

-OR-

Paint the nails on your left hand black, and on your right, white (or if you're a Brian fan, just white on your right)

[first suggestion by my brother. How foul are most of those fan club rugs?? And the other suggestion works if your friend is nosy enough s/he will ask 'what's the deal with your nails?']

7. Ask them what they think of Queen

[sure-fire way to know where they stand on the group.]

8. Take them to your place and jam with them. Sure tunes to play (and to love) is Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, Bohemian Rhapsody, Mustapha, Bicycle Race and others!

[accomplished by my friend Cassie who got her friend into it this way]

9. Make a copy of Greatest Hits to give to your friend/s.

[i can almost guarentee they'll be hooked within 2 weeks. It's already happened to 6 of my friends :-)]

Ground rules and other stuff.

Don't do all of these at once, ok? Your friend might find it a bit overwhelming that s/he might think your turning into a bit of a dag. Just do a few, the below table is the perfect combonations of how to get it right.

Always remember if they hate Queen, it's their own opinion. They are always entitled to it, so don't push it if they really are objective. If they try to make you change your opinion on the group you can tell them to get f**ked. You can have whatever tastes you want, if it's good or bad music, so be it.

It's always the best if your friend hasn't heard of the greatest group in the world. It's almost like a new beginning because you can show h/im/er that it's not like what the critics say or reputation. It's almost the best thing.

Here's the combo table of what you should do.

So i guess it's all covered then. You might think it's totally blown out of preportion, this problem, but hey, you never know when this popular fag comes along and suddenly becomes your matie. How are you going to break it then? >always remember, a real friend couldn't care less, and they would love you for what you are! *sigh*

Here is Cassie's story! Now this is the success chick of the century! Click here to read it!

NEW HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED!

Have a success in this area you wanna tell me about? Mail me and I'll include it in a new section!