Right now the main events going on in my life job-wise involve volunteering. I love what I do in those positions and the people I work with but sometimes I compare myself to my family and friends with paying jobs and my heart aches. The other day I realized the true reason for this: I just want to be normal. I’m 27 and my sisters and many of my friends are moving steadily towards independence and there is a part of me that feels trapped, as if the people around me are living the typical lives and I am the odd girl out. I am sure that every person with a difference feels this way at one time or another: why can’t I dress myself like everyone else? Why can’t I travel wherever I choose? Why is it so easy for others to make friends but not for me?
But then I remember a cliché that is actually beneficial: life is a journey, not a destination. Those things that we feel we have to do to be “normal” are just milestones that society has created; even though they feel like it, they aren’t meant to be rules for everyone to follow. As long as a person is doing his best, then he is “journeying” just as he is meant to. The other thing I need to remember besides this piece of wisdom is the point of the organization of which I want to be a part. No matter what we choose to pursue as BB Squared’s main “mission” it is going to be like we have twin purposes. On one hand it will be our goal to make life as “normal” as possible for people with differences (or perhaps make the atypical tasks easier so that people and their families have more time to pursue common activities). On the other hand, we will be doing what this blog has always done: celebrating differences as the beautiful, challenging aspect of life that they are. Knowing that to be true, perhaps my life is in the best place it could be right now, for I am living out the idea we are trying to promote: no one’s life is typical, and that is a beautiful thing.
BB Squared: Beautiful Brains, Bold Bodies 