(Back to) Normal
I wish things were back to normal
What is this Normal?
If you grew up as a nerd, social outcast, or any kind of weirdo, you likely asked this question to yourself as you wrestled with your place in society with the neurotypicals you saw so seemingly happy around you.
Where do you fit in in this world of Normal?
For a high schooler, Normal looks like…
- Hanging out with the cool kids
- Going to prom
- Knowing what you’ll do when you grow up
- Going to college and getting those sweet sweet student loans
- Getting a 9-5 job where you spend 40 hours a week in the office
- Putting all your life’s savings on a down payment on a house
- Getting married
- Having kids because doing so will finally make you happy
- Repainting that white picket fence
- Getting a divorce
- Retiring at 60, after working your butt off for all of your adult life
- Dying, wondering why you spent so much time working
Wow! Sounds great!
In 2020, going back to Normal looks like…
- Commuting 180 minutes a day
- Expensive housing in cities
- Mass shootings, many happening in schools
- Working from the office where we can sit in conference rooms, gossip about co-workers around the water cooler, and enjoy single-ply toilet paper
- Wearing uncomfortable clothing to work, instead of a comfy pair of sweat pants
- Having to attend meetings in person that could be done without driving, traffic, parking, filling up gas, or spending time away from family
- Spending more time away from home and family (instead of currently being able to have lunch with them from home)
- Systemic Racism, law and order
- 1.3 million more child deaths worldwide
- Driving to bars and music shows, parking, pushing through crowds, and fighting for the bathroom (instead of being able to enjoy a fun party right from home)
- Rising sea levels, melting ice sheets, rising global temperatures, and increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
- Paying for gym memberships, feeling bad about wasting your money on it every year
Sometimes, Normal isn’t good enough. Sometimes, we need to take a look at our Normal and consider that it may not be what we want after all.
Mmm, tasty tasty Normal.