Don't call me normal.

If there is a word that annoys me more than any other word it has to be the word ‘normal’. Nothing is normal these days and nor should any of us strive to be described of as normal. Describe me as normal and I would consider it an insult. Normality is such an irrelevant term these days as everyone is different; everyone has their own likes and dislikes, sets of beliefs etc. What is normal for me may not necessarily be normal for you, and that's ok because I'm me and you're you so of course we are going to be different.

It's this struggle to be normal and anything viewed as not normal makes us angry and I believe this is where most bigotry and hatred springs from. We are scared of what is different, but the differences between us are surely what make living so brilliant! It is our unwillingness to accept what is different that makes many of us clash and from which hatred breeds. If we were all just willing to accept each others’ differences and even try to understand them would the world not be a more peaceful place? The differences between belief systems are what has sparked many civil and World wars, and on a personal level,what got me bullied at school was being different. I was in no sense of the word a ‘boy’. I didn’t do sport, I wasn’t that macho and most of my friends were girls instead of boys. I also think it was the unwillingness to accept my own difference that made others not accept the differences they so obviously saw in me, which led other kids to bully me. If I had the strength to accept the differences about myself and was a lot more proud of who I was at the time the bullies would have had nothing to use against me to hurt me and would have moved onto someone else.

I don't want to be friends with me. Yes I'd be an amazing friend to myself and we'd have loads in common but I would never challenge myself or be open to other opinions or have my opinions challenged by others. I need difference to survive, to grow and to create.