Yesterday I was walking across campus when I overheard a girl saying to her boyfriend “Why can’t you just be more normal?” At first I thought to myself wow that was mean but then I had to laugh because I realized how ridiculous of a question it was. It made me stop and think about our society and how everyone is always striving to be normal. It seems that to be normal is the ultimate goal; and the only way to be successful and to fit in. But the more I thought about the concept of “being normal” the stranger it seemed to me. I had a really hard time coming up with a definition of what exactly normal is. I tried to think of the “normal” way to dress, to look, to eat, to speak, to do just about anything and I always came back around to answering my own question with “Well it depends on the person”. I then realized that society has literally set everyone up for failure when it comes to being “normal” because ultimately “normal” does not exist in the way we use it. According to Google, normal is an adjective meaning conforming to a standard. But who came up with this standard that we all want to conform to in the first place, and realistically why would we want to conform to a standard?
It seems that it’s almost become normal to want to be normal. I mean, normal people want to be normal, right? And those who don’t make an effort to “conform” are not normal and therefore considered outcasts. Things get even more confusing because everyone is just trying to be normal by wanting to be normal, as it appears that this is the only way to guarantee that you are considered normal by other people. What people don’t realize is that being abnormal they are actually being normal. If you think about it, it would be super weird if we all dressed the same and looked the same and talked exactly the same. Variations are normal, so as long as you’re not an alien there’s no need to worry about whether or not you are being normal enough. We spend so much time evaluating and judging each other’s normalness that we forget what is really important in life. It’s really a waste of time to be concerned with the concept of normal because quite frankly it doesn’t exist in the way that we think it does.
My advice to anyone who wants to be “normal” is to not change a single thing. Normal is just a social construct and it shouldn’t have the kind of power and influence that it does in our society. Essentially, normal is an opinion that varies from person to person which is incredibly ironic because based on current understandings, you would think something that is supposed to be normal would have some consistency. It’s unbelievable how much time and money we spend trying to be normal so that society will accept us. The questions of normalcy are endless; Is it normal to drink 6 cups of coffee in one day? Do I look normal in these pants? Does my hair look normal like this? Does this message sound normal? Is it normal to eat cupcakes for dinner? The answer to all of these is YES. If that is what you do and it makes you feel good and happy then it’s normal, don’t let anyone tell you that it’s not.
