Member-only story
I Am Not Normal
I know it, embrace it, and love who it makes me as such.
When my wife and I first began dating, I think it may have been the second date when she looked at me and said, “You are an unapologetic geek.”
“Yup.”
I had, long before, accepted how much of a geek I am. This has been a recurrent theme across my life. There was, of course, a time when I didn’t accept this aspect of myself so readily, and I was making multiple attempts to be more normal.
What’s so great about normal, anyhow?
What IS normal?
This is a question that I know I am not alone in asking. What I have gathered in my research of the human psyche is that normal is someone who does things that are expected by society.
For example, I am given to believe that a “normal” forty-something guy like me works a 9–5 job, has a wife and a kid or two, owns a house, golfs, plays tennis or racketball or such, watches pro sports, and may or may not have a “man cave” where he escapes to do so with or without a bunch of his buddies.
Let’s see how I do not meet this. My job is not a normal 9–5 job, my wife and I have no kids and that will not change, we rent an apartment because we don’t want a house. I do not golf or play that sort of sport — I do medieval fencing; I don’t watch pro…
