Recently a friend told me a story about a “problem” her young daughter had in school. The teacher asked the students to color a picture of a little girl, and my friend’s daughter colored her little girl brown. All of the other kids in class colored their little girls peach (caucasian). What the deuce?

The teacher requested a parent/teacher conference to discuss why this one child colored her picture brown unlike all of the other students. While this is a great (or maybe horrible is the more appropriate term) example of how schools teach conformity rather than independent thinking, the point is the teacher perceived this incident to be abnormal behavior.

Most of us strive to be “normal.” Why? It feels good to fit in, plus it can be scary being alone. But do we really want to be normal? What exactly is normal?

• Normal is being broke
• Normal is working 40 or 50 or 60 hours per week
• Normal is living paycheck to paycheck
• Normal is working your entire life and barely having anything to show for it in retirement
• Normal is working to make someone else rich
• Normal is eating foods sprayed with pesticides and eventually being diagnosed with cancer
• Normal is reacting rather than thinking proactively
• Normal is doing as you’re told without question
• Normal is going along with the crowd rather than thinking independently

Still want to be normal? Careful what you wish for…