Next, I walked and jogged in between on the way to the van. I was excited that I was able to help my mom with something since she never really asked me before. On the way to the car I was thinking about what a great time we were going to have this weekend. My family always went camping at the cabins ttwo times a year and the park provided us a beach so we had the chance to swim also in the daytime. I saw the van getting closer to me so I sped up my pace to get their faster thinking if I did then I would be able to get back to my football game in no
Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.
As my norm violation I chose to alter the way we are supposed to be dressed and look in public as society says. I walked around the marketplace in a backwards low cut shirt, backwards ripped jeans, one blue shoe, one red shoe, and a bright pink wig. First, I went into the yogurt store and everyone was staring at me with blank expressions and kids were laughing. As I walked over to get my favorite mango yogurt an old man jokingly asked if I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I told him no, I just liked to wear my cloths this way and that this was my natural hair. After I left the store and started walking around the water fountain, girls my age were pointing, giving me dirty looks, and some were laughing as they whispered in each other’s ears. Guys my age looked confused when they
Of course the norm for me is that of any citizen living in zone three.
There I was on the block next to the High Bar. It was about 5:00 at night when my coach told me to do a Kip. As I got up on the bar my nose filled with the smell of chalk. I started to swing, and as I came out of my half turn I looked good. Everything seemed fine but as I came to the part of the Kip where I have to pull my legs up to the bar, I slammed my shins into the bar. My momentum was stopped and I dropped on to the mat, missing the Kip. I felt like I had let down my coach and I had let down myself too. That day I experienced failure. That failure made me want my Kip even more so I worked harder and had support from my teammates.
I personally found trying to find a single “Social Norm” to break challenging so I chose to do two instead. The first was to end my phone calls with I love you, and to talk to a stranger in the bathroom stall next to my own. Which is how I confessed my undying love to a coworker. Working at a casino, employees have to call surveillance for anytime they move around with money or have to be escorted to the vault. I’m a pretty lively person but going into work, I started to get this bashful nature about myself especially the closer it came to performing both of the social norms I gave myself to break.
It was a typical Sunday morning, I ate breakfast with my family and got ready for church. The morning went on with a drag, than 5 o’clock hit. Once 5 o’clock hit my mother started yelling at my sister and me to get our stuff packed and into the car. We had only a few hours before my final summer of upward bound started. Since I started my senior year I’d been remembering many moments of my past and been reflecting on them. Therefore as I began to pack, it didn’t seem strange to me as I started to flash back to what had gotten me into Upward Bound in the first place.
Fucking in your forties with teenagers in the house is reminiscent of fucking in your teens with parents in the house. It is funny how now we think we are being so smooth with our locked doors and many showers at the oddest times, or the cover stories we fabricate and the questions we ask after out of paranoia when it probably isn’t even necessary and most likely only generates the suspicions that you were trying to avoid. It certainly isn’t like the threat of getting caught is a turn on or any motivating factor at all but more the fact that when the mood strikes, that we hate to pass up the opportunity.
The word normal doesn’t apply to someone that’s terrified to throw a gum wrapper in the trashcan. It was a ten-step journey that could transform my life forever. To step out of my chair and making it back safely as if a demon was chasing me seemed simple to others, but mentally draining for me. In order to accomplish my mission, I thought out the steps in my head.
Linda you gave me a secret life you showed me what i actually am. I still remember the day we met. In foodland in normy you were stressing about what u needed for an experiment and i asked u are you okay. You said no im going to fail my science class. So i asked do u need help and well you said yes. And from that day on we were best friends your parents loved me i was apart of your family i skip a day of school to go too your school as a guest. You introduce me to all your friends and i kcked the shit out of the guy bullying you. I dislocated hit sholder and i got i alot of shit for it and i did not care one bit and u told the principle that he punched you in the eye witch he didn't you got your mate too hit you. That day ill never forget i
Following a predestined path is a simple thing to do. Birds flying south. Fish swimming upstream. One mirroring the other, blindly accepting the norm. This is a collective trait in humans that guides us to take the "normal" path in life; however, there is no one "normal" that suits everyone. We grow and flourish in a plethora of divergent environments with different and distinct experiences. If we all tried to follow the "normal" path, it would be toxic. That is why I challenge the idea of the norm.
Fitting in. It is the rule society was defined by. For thousands of years, those who failed to meet the expectations of society were driven to the brink of survival. But how does one fit in with society? How do I fit in with my many different worlds?
I’ve been arguing and challenging the status quo since even before birth. In the early winter of 1999 my mother had received word from her doctor that something wasn’t right with her pregnancy. She had been getting more and more ill over the previous weeks, and the outlook wasn’t good. Why was she getting sick? Well, because of one key factor: Me. I wanted to come out early, to see the world and harness it’s power and I was absolutely ready, even though I actually wasn’t. The doctors had to make the decision to either let me stay and risk letting my mother die along with me or take me out immediately. The problem resided with the fact that my designated birthday was still months away. A healthy baby stays in the mother’s womb for roughly 40
Acceptance occurs when someone comes to terms with reality. They learn to live with what has happened, not everyday after this will be a breeze, but it becomes bearable. Finding acceptance may jut be having more good days than bad ones. My acceptance occurred the moment I first laid eyes on my little brother in the hospital. He was absolutely perfect. All my other feelings of anger and resent melted away. I was filled with peace and love. God knit Andrew together in my mother’s womb just like any he did every other baby. I was proud to be my new baby brother’s big sister, and I was going to protect him with everything that I was. I have since never again questioned why Andrew has Down syndrome, I do not even think of him as having down syndrome,
There are numerous words my friends and family use to describe me. Oddly enough, “normal” has never been one of them. I lost count of how many times I’ve been called “weird” for my interests and I could probably recite the words “You’re not weird, you’re entertaining!” in a flawless imitation of my mom’s voice. These have always been a repetitive cycle in my everyday life and I never really understood what they meant. What was so odd about me being me?
On the night of Halloween, me and my friends, Alberto, Jack, Jimmy, and Aldo, were vacationing in a town called Hell town. It was supposed to be haunted but we honestly didn’t believe that. We were driving around when we drove into this forest. Aldo dared Alberto to go into the woods and stay there for 30 minutes. And of course Alberto did it. He went in at about 10:30 and didn't come out until 12:30. He came out screaming something we couldn't understand. They then realized he was screaming, “ There are clowns in there!!!!”