The New Normal

The Brewer Clan headed to the zoo here in St Louis yesterday, and I’m not sure we could have had a better day, Minions. The sun was out. The temperature was perfect. The animals were interactive (The Girl swears she was communicating with a tiger for a while in roars). And the people were relatively nice. But one girl, a worker at a food stand that we passed, did something not exactly nice, and it’s been buzzing around in my brain ever since.

You may have seen pictures of my son, Jacob, online.

(For more pics of Jacob and my cats and me and everything in my life, follow me on instagram – I’m auntieheatherbrewer)

He’s pierced and has recently begun styling his hair in a wicked red and black mohawk. He’s the sweetest guy and about the most harmless person you could ever meet. And you’ve likely seen my hair – the pics on my website are way outdated. My hair is purple and black, with lil spikes at the back. Has been for a while now.

Anyway, we like weird hair. We even refer to our hair as “weird” – even though it’s not really weird at all. It’s unusual, yes, but even in the big, wide world of hair, our hair is relatively tame.

But it struck me as we passed the food cart, when the girl asked us, “Is it ‘weird hair’ day at the zoo or something? Because I’ve seen a few other people with weird hair here today.”

The reason it struck me wasn’t anything to do with me, Minions, if you want to know the truth. It was because of you.

You see, your Auntie Heather has been on a loooooong self-esteem building journey for many years now. And I’ve been quite successful on that front. I love being me, and generally don’t let other people’s opinions of me bother me. But to someone who might not be as far along on that journey as I am, that girl’s words might have hurt. All I could think about was what if it had been someone with a fondness for unusual hair color, but a lack of strong self-esteem that she had said that to? It might have, at the very least, hurt their feelings. And at most, made them feel as if they were “weird”.

But what is “weird”, exactly? Is it weird to be unlike the norm? In this day and age, when individuality seems to be a thing to celebrate (much to Auntie’s great satisfaction), who can say what is normal and what is not?

The answer, my Minions, is simple – I can.

So gather ’round, my Minion Horde! Auntie Heather has a little secret that she wants to share with you.

There is no “normal”. Nope. Doesn’t exist. Everyone – from that guy down the street with fuschia-colored liberty spikes to the little old lady who serves you green pizza in the cafeteria lunch line – everyone is weird. I’m weird. You’re weird. Even your parents are weird! And we’re all weird in our own special ways.

And the best part is that it’s totally awesome to be weird, no matter what kind of weird that we are! Maybe you’re an anime kinda weird. Maybe you collect duck figurines. Maybe you get together with friends and reenact scenes from The Goonies. It doesn’t matter! Weird is amazing. And you should be weird.

I don’t want to meet normal. Normal scares the bats right outta my belfry.

So if you’re out and about one day, celebrating your uniqueness, Minions, and someone calls you “weird”, I want you to smile politely and thank them kindly. Because you are weird. And that’s exactly how you’re supposed to be.