What’s the new normal anyway?
I recently read a great post called Approaching Normal. It got me thinking about how teens today think about being ‘normal’.
Even as adults, we all wonder about it, and the post describes just how much politicians, advertising gurus, and marketing mavens depend on our desire to be in that state of normalcy.
So, we all think about being normal and fitting in, into some group, but take yourself back to your teen years. You might want to add in some thoughts about your identity as a Jewish teen, especially if you lived in an area lacking a large Jewish population.
Try to imagine dealing with the wrenching angst of feelings that you didn’t fit in.
Of being out of the place you coveted for whatever reason. And then think of the reasons you thought you couldn’t make the grade: wrong clothes, image, name, hair, really……it could have been for any reason at all. Logic, though trying to peek through the fog, has no role here.
Think about what you were thinking, feeling, or even how you were acting….did you think you were totally normal and just like everyone else?
Those years were tough, weren’t they? But you’re done now, and all grown up (debatable, I know).
Well, our teens live and breathe in that world, but now it’s even harder: more pressured, more intense, more public. There are fewer places to hide.
Did I say the right thing? Wrong thing? Will my peers/teachers/boy-girl friend hate me? Will this be posted on facebook? Who will see? What will my parents think? Where else will it be shared, and how quick? Who will be texting this? Who can I rally? What will happen in school tomorrow? Will everyone on the bus know? Maybe I should stay home?
They live in that excruciating difficult world of alternating fear, wonder and panic. They are surrounded by unanswerable questions and questionable answers that are nearly impossible to obtain with any certainty.
We can’t even begin to imagine. Well, it turns out that there is no ‘Normal’. Not really for anyone. That’s a relief, because what our teens are going through isn’t really normal, or is it?
Photocredit: Wikipedia