Normal and an Anniversary!

Hey Readers,

Amanda's a little preoccupied at the moment (hint: it rhymes with telekinesis).  So I thought I'd talk to y'all directly today. I'm wondering what normal looks like.

Normal: n. pfft, like I'd know

It's the kind of thing I thought a lot about when l was much younger, trying to reverse-engineer normal based on observation (I did it poorly.) Now, it's just curiosity which began with a shoebox of Magic cards.

When I found my boyfriend's stash of Magic cards, I assumed that he would be mildly embarrassed that I had done so. Nope. Not at all. I later made a comment equating Magic to Dungeons and Dragons, and he was genuinely, if mildly, offended.

I still don't consider Magic "normal" but have since acknowledged
 it has definite moments of cleverness. And... it is kinda fun

In my world, Magic and D&D were similarly abnormal. To my boyfriend, Magic was normal and D&D was a completely different class of abnormal.

The ephemeral nature of normal is essentially the root of all internet evils. The Mommy Wars are all about the definition of maternal normalcy, and all political invocations of Godwin's Law start out with two incompatible but normal views.

It's odd. It's odd to find that your common sense isn't common. When you express moderate, to you, opinion and have your family strongly disagree. Or make an assumption of agreement with a friend only to find that you weren't even close.

Sleeping on the floor. Still more normal than sleeping on a mattress. ....weird.

I went to an elementary school where I felt like a slow-reader because I didn't know how to read before I got to Kindergarten. I recently learned that you shouldn't assume children are read to daily.

So what is normal? And we kind of assume a value judgement about normal, about what should be normal.

I spend a lot of my time planning and day-dreaming for a specific future. I know exactly which skills I want to pick up, and the order my current resources will allow me to attain them. This is the exact opposite approach to life that my father had/has. Which is more common? Or are we both odd?

Amanda and I are essentially the same person. Same parents, same religion, same vacations, same university, generally same talents and interests. But I'm truly surprised at the breadth and depth of things we can disagree on. Our memories of past events aren't even the same.

 So tell me, what's normal? When have you realized that you were the odd one all along? Magic the Gathering? Grand scale life plans? 

And while I'm talking to you, readers...

 It's been a year here at Sistionary! Thank you for reading and commenting. Really and truly, thank you. Good things gonna come, I hope you're excited because I definitely am.

(Good luck with your thesis Amanda!-- Read you on Tuesday)

-Stephanie