Everyone different

Hi, my name is Ivalentin24 and I always wanted to be a “normal person” (Normal  doesn’t exist… pointing that out first) when I was younger. But that is far from the truth; so let’s start at the beginning! When I was very young, my mother was taken away from me. Seeing her in a police car was super disappointing, as if I lost something important that I cared for. 

Fast forward two or three years and I’m five, only living with my father in Lebanon, Pennsylvania with my sister L, who doesn’t remember what she looked like (except in photos) while I still do. I went to school, was great at it, and came back from home. What bothered me the most however was the reason why my mother wasn’t here with me, as I saw some of my peers have mothers while I sat waiting for my father on a staircase. Then a few years later I saw my mother again, which made me glad as I didn’t feel her grasp in a while. During those days I went out to eat with her, and spent lots of time with her in general. But then I was faced with a decision: move to Maine with her or stay in Pennsylvania with my father.

It was tough, as I was faced with curiosity or ignorance essentially, a life without my father or a life without my mother; Throwing away the friends I’ve made or potentially making new ones in maine. You probably know what decision I made… so fast forward to third grade and here I was in Carrie Ricker, everyone being new and way different from the city. I was different and naive, which bugged me as I didn’t know anyone’s interests or what they like. These events in my life have shaped me into the person I am today, it’s what makes me different from everyone else. 

But this isn’t the end of this speech because I gave a sentimental backstory in the beginning of being different due to family issues and moving. Life has multiple meanings, the word different is a pithy term that’s used to differentiate things based on what we see or perceive. So, the meaning of being different has multiple meanings. By the way, sorry for the philosophical spiel, high school is super confusing enough. But anyways, here’s another story that shows another meaning of being different.

When I was younger, I had a speech impediment on the basis of stuttering. I’m gonna-gonna skip this part because I don’t want to stu-stutter, but the difference that sets me apart from others is obviously the delay from the impediment… but another difference is the fact of it being a foundation of my personality; essentially making me being more articulate when it comes to talking; The progression of how to talk as well made me different from others as well, going from an incoherent and prolific stutterer to someone who can talk like a normal person. But nobody’s normal, and the term normal is something that we perceive based on having a pattern we are used to observing… Like stuttering was normal for me when I was younger while talking clearly was normal to others was their way of “normal”. What I’m truly trying to say is that differences can be perceived differently from person to person, and that it can be described in so many different ways like an enormous spectrum. (I confused myself when I wrote this because everything and everywhere is different but can be the same to others.) So now that I got that out of the way, let me put it in a nutshell and say that everything is different and the same.

If we all weren’t different in some aspects we wouldn’t be human and we would more likely be like very austere and boring people. Even though I never liked having no mother figure in my life, I wouldn’t be the same person if I had one in my life and I’m pretty sure I like the way I am. 

“The Graduates” by Game of EPL5 & LUMIX G20/F1.7 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.