There are norms in society that all people are expected to live up to. Research has shown that three to five friends is the optimal number of friends a person should have. That is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard, for three reasons. One: Some people find that they function best alone, and not when socializing. Two: Why should there be a set checklist to decide whether or not someone is “normal”? And three: No one is normal. People are like snowflakes: No two are the same.

We all have our little quirks that set us apart from the rest of society, and that is okay. It is completely illogical to put a pin on what makes someone “normal” when no person in the world is “normal”. Still, many teens find themselves desperate to fit into the cookie cutter that society has given us.

I have dealt firsthand with this. I have always been a bit different from other students my age. For example, I am a huge fan of the TV series Ultraman. Never heard of it? Exactly. I realize that my interests are different from what many other people are interested in, and that’s okay.

Sadly, many teens don’t realize that their little quirks and differences are perfectly fine, and they often find themselves scrambling to be normal in the eyes of their peers. Why? Because society tells them that they need to. The day that society stops telling us that we need to conform to social norms is the day that we become a better and more civilized society.

We teens have enough on our minds: school, grades, hobbies, extracurricular activities, etc., so the last thing we need is to be told that we won’t be good enough until we conform to society.

Many teens feel as though, no matter what they do, no matter how hard they try to conform, there is just something different about them. When someone feels this way, they can start to become depressed, which can lead to suicide. In fact, depression is the number one cause of suicide among teens. When trying to feel normal can lead to suicide, it begs the question, why do we have social norms when all they do is tear people apart? There is no good answer.

Social norms can also lead to a lack of creativity. If someone is, say, interested in painting, but all of their friends like baseball, they can feel left out. They may begin to feel that they simply have to play baseball, whether or not they like it, in order to feel accepted. The Picasso of tomorrow could have just been stopped from fulfilling his dream. Once we get rid of this twisted world view that we have, the world will be filled with more creativity.

God created us all differently. So, why don’t we embrace these differences? None of us are normal. None of us are the same. All of us have our little differences. We need to embrace our differences. We need to embrace ourselves and our differences. Then, and only then, will we become truly free.