Has anybody ever said to you, “Why are you so abnormal?” or “Why don’t you see things like everybody else?” What did you say?
You probably thought, “Just because I would approach the situation in a different way than many others, that doesn’t make me abnormal.”
So the true question is “What does it mean to be normal?”
According to Webster’s Dictionary, normal is defined as “reaching the average level of intelligence and or development.” Is there an example of this anywhere on Earth?
There are countless numbers of people that walk this planet, and the idea of normality is different for each of us.
Normalcy goes back to the way we were bought up, the times that each of us have lived in, the lives we lead every day and many other aspects that contribute to our character.
There have been millions upon millions of studies that have to do with diagnosing whether a person is “normal.”
One of the most famous and most used normalcy tests is the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test. It is a test designed to compare two experimentally-determined statistical distributions.
When testing for normality, this test compares an experimental distribution against a hypothetical ideal, giving you what a normal response would probably be. But of course, the results are just that of a test, not necessarily accurate.
Personally, I’m not sure if there is such a thing as being normal. Life brings about many different situations and trials. There is no one way to think about them, and in most situations, there is more than one way to solve them. For example, we all like to discuss the lives of celebrities and other people of high status, especially if we don’t know the whole situation.
Let’s look at the life of Michael Jackson. The outside world constantly judged him, and he was thought of as weird and strange by just about everybody. Yes, he was abnormal, but many people didn’t know or even care about the reasons why.
He never got a chance to experience childhood; he was constantly in the spotlight, which leaves little room for a mistake or flaw. Even though he had a huge family, he always felt alone.
Much of his adult life reflected the life he wanted when he was a child. It didn’t make sense to many of us, but we all have to walk our own path, regardless to whether that is satisfactory or normal in the eyes of others.
Everybody is unique and there are qualities and characteristics that make us different than any other person alive.
So to answer my question earlier, no, I don’t believe anyone fits the mold of being normal. Abnormality is the spice of life. It’s what makes us human.
Stedmond Ware is a sophomore majoring in biological sciences. He can be contacted at [email protected].