Normal

12^th 0f October, the day we celebrate our hero. Without him, humanity would be dead, extinct, just like the dinosaurs that once roamed the planet called earth. He used his wealth to study our present planet mars, he knew that humanity would soon be destroyed by their own actions and ignorance. Elon Musk is his name, on the 12^th of October 2018, he indicated to the world, on an app called twitter, that half his money would be to establish a self-sustaining city on mars to ensure the continuation of human life, now in the year, 10,233, we use that date to celebrate him. It is not a su…” Stop”, I say suddenly as Tega gives me a confused and expectant look. I had stopped her midsentence as she was narrating her overdue history assignment to me “Instead of humanity would soon be destroyed, write he knew that the actions and ignorance of humanity would destroy them, it makes the sentence livelier and more persuasive” “Hmm, you’re right, you’re right. Thank you” she says with much enthusiasm. “Do you really have time for this though? I mean, your assignment was due a week ago and you still have time to proofread?” I said with a light laugh “Of course! I want the lecturer to see my work and be like, ‘wow, such magnificent and beautifully written work, I shall forget she submitted late’” she replies with a serious face and I roar in laughter “That is if he even looks at your work,” I say as she pouts and thinks about it. “Hey, have you heard the latest news?” I ask her while turning around in my chair “I’ve heard a lot of news today, so which?”  “The one about the pandemic coming to an end” “Oh, that”. I do not know why, but we both went silent after that, you could probably hear a pin drop. We were both locked in our own individual thoughts, but I could guess what was going through Tega’s mind, it was most likely very similar to the rest of our generation’s and mine.

Later that night after Tega had left my room to hers, I try to complete the finale of my webtoon comic, but I kept being sucked into the abyss called overthinking. It is weird, it’s good to see everybody so happy, but when they say everything is going back to normal, I start to question myself, what is normal? For my generation, normal is having classes and exams online, normal is always using a hand sanitizer and a facemask, normal is social distancing. Not to mention, normal is restaurants and outdoor places not being crowded. Normal is just conforming to a standard a collective group of people are used to. So why is it that when a person does a thing that is not in line with that specific standard, he or she is met with distaste and hate just because we are uncomfortable or not used to it? 

I mean, Aunt Becky was looked down upon just because she has one leg, my friend Sia was discriminated just because she has blue eyes, my mum scorned for being a single mum. All because they did not fit into our expectation, into our tiny bubble of normal. If our hero, Elon Musk could see that Martians are not so different from our predecessors on earth, he would probably start looking at other planets that might support life for fear of history repeating itself. People are the problem, always. 

Listening to Stray Kids while overthinking really helps and I have already sorted out a file to overthink in my head. I can just picture how the older generation will react and how they will talk once they realize that my generation is struggling to fit in. It would probably go like “You better sort yourself out, everything has gone back to normal”, I thought with an exaggerated eye roll. Growing up in a bunker, and lockdown life is all I have ever known, I’m personally not ready for my mum’s  ‘normal’. I cannot believe I will have to ponder on the clothes to wear to school, not to mention unnecessary interactions with too many people. The only thing that excites me is going for concerts and having frequent outdoor dates with Cole. “Hey, my lecturer just informed us that those who submit their assignment late will do a presentation in front of the whole class” Tega says as she burst into my room. I shake my head while laughing at her and seeing her irritated face just made me laugh harder, “Sorry, but something about seeing you in misfortune excites me” I say while she rolls her eyes. “I see where you’re coming from though, hell anybody can. We literally grew up doing schoolwork behind a computer or laptop, so to suddenly be smacked on the face with presentation is just heartless. At this point, my tired is tired,” I say with a big sigh as Tega gets comfortable on my bed and we talk throughout the night until we see the sun come up.

“How do you feel? Physical resumption of school is tomorrow,” my mum says with a little smile. I can tell she is worried “Well, apart from the fact that everything is new, and I will be walking through new and suffocating corridors by tomorrow. I am quite good,” I reply as I return the little smile back. “Don’t worry, soon you will get used to this and it will become your normal,” she says. “Hmm, I don’t think this will ever become my normal, normal is subjective to a collective group of people. So, in my case, this whole arrangement is unusual and not normal” I say as I strut away feeling like Elon Musk. Walking to school the next day is torture, people carelessly hug each other, they talk carelessly too, without caring where their saliva might land.

“Everybody is acting so weird” Tega whispers beside me “They are just happy they are back to their normal” I whisper back “This is definitely not normal,” she says as I laugh lightly. 

    ‘Wow, I did not know the school’s campus was this big’ I think as I look around. I steadily prepare my mind as I remind myself that almost all students here are doing this for the first time. “Let’s go, we will get through this together,” Tega says with an encouraging smile as she lets out her hand for me to hold and I return the smile while taking her hand. We had barely taken 3 steps when…” Lara!” Cole shouted and beside him, were our other group of friends standing and smiling like the members of the avengers. I don’t know why, but Tega and I start laughing as the others join in and with that, we become fully aware that none of us is ready for this, but we will get through it, together.