What's normal?

I have been battling this issue for awhile now. And in this world of judgement, teasing and bullying I think its a topic that should be discussed. I love the efforts of society to try and remove words such as retard and gay and fag from our vocabulary.

I feel the same way about the word normal. What's normal? who decides what's normal? From putting ketchup on french fries to wearing socks with shoes who decides it's normal. I find myself keying to this word in conversations and text often. Many times I will stop and ask "How's that normal?". It's a hard question to answer but what I have found even harder is finding a replacement word for normal just because it is cemented into our everyday life. I have made a conscience effort of not using the word and honestly I can't remember the last time I did. I won't lie, it does slip out every once in awhile but I usually catch it. I just think too many kids, teenagers and even adults fight every day for normalcy in their lives, even if they don't know why its normal or agree with it. From athletes to musicians, country to city, gay to straight, conventional to non-conventional, no one is normal, we are all different and no one person is perfect. God made us the way we are for a reason, we have a path, our own path, that we get to paint it the way we want to. So enjoy it, use all the colors and don't worry that your path doesn't look like the one next to you.

Own it, Love it, Be Proud of it.

"I think of life itself now as a wonderful play that I've written for myself, and so my purpose is to have the utmost fun playing my part."  ~Shirley MacLaine