What is Normal?

AMC's Freakshow has taught me quite a few things in just one season, that no other show or person has been able to do before. First of all it's okay to be different. We're not all made the same and it's fine to be different, great actually. Second, you shouldn't let what others think of you, bother you, just be You, and be proud of who you are! (I'll admit I struggle with this one often, I really have no self confidence at all.) Also if someone calls you a freak, thank them. It's really a complement, I promise.(thats a topic for another time though) Third thing I took from this show is that there is no such thing as normal.

According to dictionary.com normal means "conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal." I honestly don't believe you can put a definition to the word.

What is Normal?

Really all it is, is a word. A word that society has tainted. People are taught that normal is a certain standard of living life, that if something is out of place, it is "not normal". This is not true, it varies, changes, there is no true definition.

Normal is different for every person. Normal for me a going to college most days and seeing my best friend once or twice a week and constantly talking to her throughout it. It's going to church almost every Sunday with my parents. That is My normal, but not the normal for someone else.

Normal for those at the Venice Beach Freak Show would be swallowing swords, being a human pin cushion, playing with fire (whether eating it or 'breathing' it). It could be putting a hook through their nasal cavity and have it come out through their mouth, having so many volts of electricity go through their body, need I continue?

The Venice Beach Freak Show had a parade for their season finale. A parade saying no to normal. They carried a coffin down the boardwalk and had so many people join in too. They walked around handing out stickers and letting people know what they were fighting for, defending. They were making a stand, and did an outstanding job at it.

To me there will never be a true meaning to the word. The definition will change per person. I believe that what the Freak Show and all it's wonderful performers/workers were saying is dead, is society's definition of normal, ultimately eliminating the word because once society's definition is gone, the word loses meaning to life. We no longer truly see what is normal and what is not, but just different ways of living life.

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The people at the Venice Beach Freakshow (Todd, Danielle, pheonix, Asia, Morgue, Ali, Brianna, Murrugun, and everyone else involved) have taught me so much. I can't thank them enough for giving me a new way to look at life. I hold so much respect for these brilliant and strong people. What they do everyday is amazing, they're amazing. Hope this gives everyone who reads it a new look at normal or at least makes them really think about what normal is. Have a good day.