Recently I have been trying to remove one word from my vocabulary: normal. For my entire life I have compared myself to what is “normal.” I have tried to be more “normal.” I have asked myself, “Do normal people feel like this? Do normal people think this?” I have decided that I am done worrying about “normal.” Because normal is fake. Normal is a concept created in our heads to make us feel less than. Sure, statistically there are things that are “normal.” There are things that the average person does a certain number of times a day or that the average person does in a lifetime. But the concept of “normal” as something we should aspire to is dumb.
What is normal really? A set of characteristics that I have built up in my head that dictate how I should act, what I should wear, and what I should look like so that I “fit in.” But no one really fits those characteristics. Because no one is normal. No two people are exactly alike. Everyone thinks different, looks different, acts different, and feels different. And there is nothing wrong with that. The diversity of thought in this world is what makes humankind so precious. Without differences, our world would be so boring. So, my mission to myself, and to you, is to stop trying to be normal. Stop trying to live up to the standards that have been set by the voices in your head telling you that you aren’t enough and start being yourself. Because, as cheesy as it is, that is always enough.