When I look up the word "normal" on Google Images, I come back with everything from this wonderful coaster (see left) to a really strange TV show ad with men who appear to be approximately eight months pregnant. A lot of people perceive me to be pretty average. Smart, sure, but overall uninteresting as your run-of-the-mill teenage galwoman. (That's a new term for when you're unsure of what to call yourself.) Normal = average = common = universal = a societal standard of acceptability based upon the groupthink that occurs when no one questions why we can't appreciate each other the way we are. While exploring the internets over this year especially, I have been exposed to people with backgrounds I've never even thought about experiencing before. I've gotten to know a lot about the way people from different places think and I think it's made me more open to share my experience because it might not be the same as yours. You see, there's this thing in statistics called normal distribution... In normal distribution, the middle is the average, and there's less and less data as you go toward the edges. This is extremely useful in my AP stat class. It helps you find outliers and really visualize data. But people don't work that way. There's something valuable in everyone no matter how strange they might seem to be. If you encounter me online, I promise you I will be extraordinarily strange. It keeps things interesting, and also helps me to filter what I say with my actual mouth and not my fingertips. Just because someone doesn't do things the way you want them to does not under any circumstances mean that they don't have something you can learn from them. Once you figure that out, you are set for the rest of your life. New people you meet will challenge your opinions, but not out of spite- out of curiosity. Learning about the people we share this world with is a wonderful thing, and when you put people into the middle 68% and separate them from everyone else, you are truly missing out on a great resource. Even though are really horrible sometimes, there are great ones out there, and they can teach you so much about yourself and their experience. I think that if we could all compile our memories and experiences collectively and glean absolutely every lesson we could from all of them, we would be some of the most intelligent and understanding people in the world. And that is a powerful thought.
0 Comments
Today ended up being my audition day for Beauty and the Beast. I was planning on doing my monologue first, but I was asked to go ahead and do my song so that our assistant director could here me sing. And I screwed up. I forgot the ending to the first verse and the first part of the second verse. I am kind of mad at myself because things didn't go they way I wanted them to. Another girl kept yelling for me to hurry up and it totally got me off track. It's okay, though. I did well on my monologue and once I got past my nerves, I did the ending of my song well. I would totally take a do-over day. That would probably be optimal. But I know that things will turn out the way they're supposed to.
What has inspired me to make that point, dear reader? Why, my own ridiculously crazy and depressing family, of course. No one has died, thankfully, but my nephew has landed himself in jail for unlawful imprisonment. Great. I love it when this happens. It's really tough when you have family members in jail because it puts a strain on you. Sometimes if the person goes frequently it's kind of like a scar that reminds you that they're not with you, but then when someone else ends up going the wound gets ripped right back open. So even though I may jest, it's only to change things up a little bit instead of you reading an entire page of depressing thoughts!
I wanted to tell him that it didn't matter if he had done anything or not. The point was that he was around people who had, and that was why he was where he was, regardless of his actions. The people he surrounded himself with led him straight behind bars because he let them, and even though he is sorry and scared, no one can change the felony that is now attached to his adult record. In short, partying isn't worth it. Drugs aren't worth it. Alcohol isn't worth it, and your friends aren't worth it. Ruining your life over fun for the next five minutes is the stupidest and most depressing thing I have heard of in a long time. If I were older than you, nephew, I would slap some sense into that head of yours.
|
AuthorTwenty-something kind-of-adult woman trying to navigate her future, her calling, and her God. Archives
August 2017
Categories
All
|