Defining Normal

Walking through the hallways on a typical school day, most everybody looks the same. Girls wear leggings and boots, or sweatshirts and Nike running shorts. Boys will typically wear a T-shirt and gym shorts along with the classic Nike socks. It seems like every high school student has a smartphone these days, and uses the time in between classes to check it. Five years from now, everything will be different. People will be wearing completely different outfits and looking at completely different gadgets. Still, everyone will be doing whatever is popular. Society puts this idea in peoples heads that in order to be cool, you must be the same as everyone else. Whether it be defined by the things you wear, the things you say, or the things you own, we are judged every single day for being a little different than what is considered ‘normal.’

Being normal is defined by Merriam-Webster as being “usual or ordinary: not strange.” But still, that begs the question, what is normal? There is no way to define what people consider to be “usual” or “ordinary” because it is ever changing in society. It seems that in our fast pace world, new gadgets or new fashion styles appear every 5 seconds, and we are expected to keep up with it all. To me, that seems nearly impossible. There are so many things going on the world and in our individual lives, all happening at the same time and all happening so fast.

With that being said, I believe people should just be themselves. Why spend time worrying about being everyone else? It’s what makes you unique and without differentiation between people in this world, there would be no advances or changes in society.

On my neighbor's refrigerator, I saw a magnet with a quote by a man named Alfred Adler, and he said, “The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well,” and it actually makes a lot of sense. When you think about it, we always look at other people or families and think that they have regular lives. That they are not strange in any way, and that we are the weird ones. Everyone has a weird side, and for some reason, everyone hides it to be normal.

Being yourself gives you the right to make your own decisions. It gives you the freedom to chose what it best for you and your well being. Stop caring about the other people judging you, because in reality, they have no right to. Staying true to yourself and your identity is one of the most important things when it comes to success and to forming relationships with other people.

Easier said than done. Being yourself when you are put in a situation that is outside your comfort zone is extremely difficult. In the long run though, in order to create strong relationships with people, you have to start it off right and true. Be yourself and stay original, because honestly, being somebody else is already taken.

Waking Up or Sleeping In?

If you haven’t figured it out by now, you are either one of two things: a morning person or a night owl. This characteristic is a good determination of the kind of person you are. It may sound silly, to judge a person by how late, or early they prefer to get up. But a person's sleeping habits can show a lot about their personality. It is a common assumption that morning people are automatically more proactive because they start their day earlier, but that’s not necessarily true. A morning person is a morning person because that is when they like to get things done, but a night owl is a night owl because that is when they prefer to get things done. It isn't about the time of day a person wakes, its about what a person does with that time they have.

A study performed by Spanish researchers shows that the personality traits of night owls and morning larks prove to be very different. For example, a morning person is thought of to be very logical and analytical. They are seen as proactive, always hoping to accomplish something before the clock strikes noon. A late sleeper usually carries imaginative and more intuitive traits. They are usually more creative.  I don’t want to get into it, but there is actually a lot more science behind what determines a night owl or a morning person, having to deal with hormones and the peak of a person’s sleep cycle.

Depending on the type of person, the time of day has a great impact on productivity level of employees or students. In high school, there is not much of a choice on whether you are a night owl or a morning person. You are expected to perform your best, whether it be nearing the end of the day, or at the ungodly hour of 7am. It is like that in the real world. Night owls must conform to a morning person’s schedule, and vise versa.

We all know everybody is unique. There are many ways a person is different from the next, and the 
separation between morning people and night owls is very real. Their productivity levels vary throughout the day, which can be backed up by scientific facts. Personality traits have been known to change depending on the time of day you find yourself working at full capacity. It is important to note these differences, and realize that everyone performs differently at different points in the day.

Jill Drevin

It was biology, freshman year. The class was told that we had to do the Science Fair, and that it counted as a rather large portion of our 3rd quarter grade. As soon as our teacher said the words “You make work alone or with a partner” everybody began frantically looking around the room, making eye contact with their friends. Working in a partnership for a project this big would definitely be ideal. I just kept my head down, knowing I wasn’t close with anyone in my Biology class. The teacher continued to explain the details of the project and all of the requirements we had to meet. As she droned on and on, I started to tune her out. I began to think about who I would work with and what we would do a project on. Before I knew it, class was over and we were packing up our things. I knew the project wouldn’t be due for a couple months, but to say I was feeling stressed is an understatement. There’s no way I can do this by myself, I thought, But who would my partner be?

Next period I had lunch, and I walked there with Jill, who I guess you could say was somewhat of an acquaintance of mine. I knew her from elementary school but she and I weren’t too fond of one another. I remember our mutual friend would have these pool parties and a bunch of girls would all go. It became a regular thing to host dance competitions. We would split into teams (I was always a judge, knowing all too well that my dance moves were far too advanced for these types of occasions), and each team would come up a routine. In the end, the judges would be forced to choose a winner and there would always be so much fighting. I guess I just associated Jill with those frustrating memories, and never really thought of her as having changed since 5th grade.  

We started talking about Science Fair, and how stressful the whole process was going to be. Being in an honors class, grades were at the top of most student’s priority list. She then asked me who my partner was.

“I don’t have one yet,” I replied “But I feel like the project would be a million times easier with one.” Jill laughed and replied rather quickly.

“I’ll be your partner! I don’t have one yet either.” I was so ecstatic! It felt as though a humongous weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

This isn’t the story about our Science Fair project, or the grade we received. This is the story of how Jill Drevin became one of my closest  friends. Those long hours spent studying and putting together our first science project of our high school career allowed us to get to know one another extremely well. We both share the same, somewhat annoying characteristic of getting off topic at times. But to be fair, it is necessary to take breaks from projects to prevent yourself from going insane. It is evident today that our current friendship is in no way based off school work or science projects, and I’m still not sure how or why we became such good friends. But ever since that project, we have been growing closer each and every day.

Everybody has somebody they consider their best friend. In highschool, its practically necessary to have one in order to just get through the day. You need someone to talk to about random things in your life, someone to hang out with, and someone who can relate to you when no one else can. Jill is that someone for me. I can’t even remember the 5th grade version of Jill anymore because our friendship since freshman year has been, and always will be, perfect. That doesn't mean we don't argue at times, it just means that even if we do argue or disagree on something, we get over it quickly and become even closer. Our arguments are so short anyways because there is always something else we are dying to tell one another.

We have even come to subconsciously establish indicators of each other’s moods. For example, when texting, the way one of us spells the word “Okay” means a lot when it comes to how we are feeling. If I were to spell it like “Ok” or even to go as far as “K”, Jill would know right off the bat that I am angry or upset with something. If it were to be spelled like “Okey” (our invented spelling of the word), then everything is happy and good between us. This sounds ridiculous, but its one of the things that makes our friendship so unique.

Furthermore, our relationship just works. We like the same things, hate the same things, and can tell what the other is thinking without exchanging any words. It is crazy how alike we are. Our personalities are almost identical. We relate to each other so well and there is no judgement coming from either one of us. We can be our complete selves around one another.

Without our friendship, I don't know how either of us would have made it past freshman year. We can be weird and serious all at once. We tell eachother everything. And by everything, I mean there are literally no secrets. She tells me pointless stories about random conversations she’s had all the time, and I love hearing them. We are each other's got-to girls, always giving advice to one another on everything. I feel like our friendship is so different from others. Jill and I have the craziest memories, and can always have fun hanging out even if we’re not doing anything. Friendship is so important, especially for teenage girls. Jill will always be there for me and I trust her with anything and everything. I always think to myself, What if we had never been science partners? Looking back, I believe we would of have become friends anyway, just because we are that much alike.

Going, Going, Gone

I have always thought being the youngest child was the easiest. Especially in a family with only two children. The youngest can always learn from what the oldest child does wrong. They usually get things that they want sooner than the older sibling. There are so many advantages to being the youngest, that is until the eldest goes on to college.

I had never experienced what being an only child was like until my sister, Hanley, left for Ohio State this past year. Even though it has only been about a month since she’s been gone, my life has changed drastically. Now I sit alone at the dinner table with my parents, feeling pressured to find topics to talk about, even more so now that my sister was gone. The worst is when I have to eat dinner alone because of my busy volleyball schedule. She was always the talkative one at the dinner table, sharing every little detail about her day. I never would've thought that I’d find myself missing what I thought was just another round of her pointless stories.

Hanley and I are very close. We are only 16 months apart in age, and shared a room with each other for the first 12 years of my life.  Before she left for college in mid-August of 2013, we had never been apart for more than 10 days at a time. We tell each other everything. Every time I walk by her room I want to just walk in and tell her random things about my life, but then I remember she isn't there. We talk on the phone all the time though, and she texts me a lot. There is this sort of game we would always play with each other, where one person would just shout or say a movie quote and the other would have to either finish the quote, or guess which movie its from. We started quoting everything, and even in public we would shout these random quotes and people would be so confused. That’s probably the thing I miss most about having her around all of the time.

Being an only child, while sad and really different, does have its advantages. It might be that I’m just not used to it, but I feel like the center of attention in my house. It is such a drastic change to go from it being all about getting Hanley ready for college to being just about me.

Now that she’s gone, we still talk often, but it’s definitely harder than it was before due to her busy schedule. Also, I feel like this transition is almost harder for me than it is for her. She has so many new friends and exciting new things happening for her, and I’m still back in high school. When we talk about things and people, its hard for me to relate as easily as I could back when she was here and I knew what she was talking about.

I miss my sister terribly. This is by far the biggest adjustment I’ve had to make in my entire life. She used to be right down the hall, and now she is 2 hours away, and probably having the time of her life. I know this is something a lot of younger siblings go through and I believe this transition is so difficult because we are so close. There was no way to prepare myself for what this would be like, but it had to happen eventually.