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I stare into the souls of humans and ask them what they want.

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I don’t want you to feel that a standardized test is a true measure of your worth and that grades are what define you.

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I can always tell when it is fake and not genuine.

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I cry until thinking is a sanctioned activity. I cry until I can see clearer. You are not here.

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But maybe normal isn’t okay. Normal is five hours of TV a day. Normal is overweight.

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3. Pretending to be “normal.”

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I was diagnosed with schizophrenia when I was 20 years old.

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Be active on Twitter. Let people know that you’re a person who does things. Cool things! Make sure to tweet about the amazing dinner you had with your best friends. It was a potluck in Brooklyn and you brought the kale! Neglect to mention/ tweet what you did afterwards, which was cry three solitary tears while watching Felicity on Netflix and eating an entire sleeve of Joe-O’s.

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Consider the following fact. You — and everyone you’ve ever known and loved — will die one day. You can read what I just wrote, and even understand and believe it, but it still doesn’t seem real to you. That’s the magic of denial. Denial is better than booze or drugs or even sex.

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But normal is an impossible, undefined ideal. While it feels decadent, possibly destructive, to only worry about being happy with yourself or at least happy with the ways you are unhappy, you can’t exactly go around comparing yourself to all the people who have no better idea of the holy-normal than you do.