Is There A Normal Life?

What is a normal life? Can someone truly say that the life they are living is normal? I'm sure everyone has asked themself this question at least once in their life. In this article I want to share my experiences with you, in Hope's of clearing up the answer to this question.

I come from a small town in Texas, where everyone knows everyone, and if they didn't know you, well let's just say it won't be long before they do. Growing up, I always had the question at the pit of my thoughts, why cant life just be normal? I have an amazing mother that I thank god for every day. My father, although always in my thoughts, was not always around. They gave me a wonderful sister who I think highly of and look up to. She is my best friend. My mother has been a teacher fo early headstart for over 15 years and she's the hardest working woman I know. She's my role model. At an early age, our dad took off on the road to drive a truck and we never saw him much after, mostly because he moved closer to his parents in Florida, and as you know, Texas and Florida are far apart, and the cost to take a trip there and back for a visit was rather on the high side. Now, growing up, we struggled to make ends meet. We are what they consider low class citizens. Even though we all worked our asses off, we had very little to show. Not because we couldn't manage our money, but because the cost of living is high.

When my dad left, my mom had what you would call a mental breakdown which led her walking down a lonely path that has no ending. We have all been down this road, and we all know how painful it is. I mean could you blame her? Dad left, we lost the house, went bankrupt, the town hated us and blamed my mom for the divorced, the church disowned us and kicked us out, it seemed like the downfalls would never stop. During this time period, sis were kind of shoved to the side per say. We stayed with our grandparents at the time, and grandpa had cancer, so I was hard for grandma to watch us. We started following the trails of our parents and this soon led to us being troubled teens. Smoking cigarettes, smoking weed, drinking alcohol, we just did what we wanted. This eventually led to many many dark days and troubles within our family.

Alcohol has been a part of our family for as long as I remember. Drugs as well. My mom became a heavy drinker, and so did my sister. I became the junior high pothead that anyone could point out and tell ya yup, he's a pothead. I have always been an anti social kid. I was bullied alot in school, and I found it very hard to connect with people. This led me to a deep depression that I still battle today, and a very lonely road. Although my mom found the love of her life, an amazing hard working man and stepfather, alcohol was still very close to my family. I was never big on drinking, but weed and pills soon took over my life. These things took over our family and caused many traumatizing moments and a lot of life lessons that I will save for another story.

Now you may be wondering where this story is leading to, and why I'm telling you about my shitty life, but read closely because it's about to get good.

Even though we didn't live this normal life we all envision, we wasn't the perfect family that is idoled throughout the world, and we probably had more problems than a peacock giving birth to a bald eagle, we still carried ourselves in the normal fashion. We still got together on holidays, and ate dinner together every night. We still told each other goodnight and I love you before bed. We still stood beside each other when one was down, and held each other up. We were still a family.

So if you ask me if there is a such thing as living a normal life, I will just laugh at you and tell you hell no! You cannot scientifically define what normal is. Normal is what our mind is trained to believe. What's normal to you can not be normal to anyone else on earth. Why do you ask? Because we are all different, we are all unique, and we are all special. Not one of us was made to be alike. If I think making music is the perfect remedy for a recovering addict dealing with depression and anxiety, you may think that therapy and medication is more on the normal side.

In conclusion, we are all created different, unique, and equal, especially our minds. What we believe is a normal life is based on our own perspectives and life experiences. Let your mind lead you to a normal life because there is no wrong answer to a normal life. Let the dark times be life lessons that build knowledge because as you may have heard, knowledge is power.