I know you've all heard it before; the whole "be yourself because everyone else is taken" attitude that your parents, teachers, and even your peers tell you to put up because it's what's best for you. What they don't realize is how difficult it can be for someone to truly abide by that lifestyle. There are people who struggle inside every single day, trying to muster the courage to get out into the world and be 100% only themselves, instead of being society's perception of them. LGBTQ people struggle with this the most; it must be so difficult to look around at all the "normalcy" around you and notice that you're just not going to be like that, no matter how hard you try.
There should be a different definition of the word normal, or it should be permanently removed from our vocabularies from here on out. Normal isn't just one thing; it's a perception. What's normal for the spider is chaos for the fly, and that's because every single living being has their own routine and their own view. But why should it matter if someone else doesn't fit your mold? Why should it matter that sometimes, you look around and not everyone is like you? Being different is what makes a society; creativity, innovation, all of these factors help us all so much in technology and the modern workplace. So then why is it that we run scared whenever a different kind of person comes along?
I believe that everything is relative; nothing should be seen as having only one function, and neither should a person. You want to eat cereal with a fork? Go ahead and do just that but then don't judge someone for being odd in their own ways. Hopefully soon, everyone will wake up and realize that we're never going to be one and the same. That society is never going to fully be just rows of the same house, painted the same color, with the same man, woman, and their child living in it. Because the world was not made for black and white; it lives for color.
So, be yourself. Learn to love how you burp just a little too loud or how you can't do math to save your life or how you seem to know everything about everything except for how to love. You're going to be okay because we are all going to be okay.
And soon, we'll all be so different, normal will just be an old memory cast into the shadows.
