As teenagers, we go to school, go do piles of homework, and go to sleep at __AM. At school, we have all our friends, teachers we can rely on, and tests we have to face. Then, we get home to loads of homework and studying to try and get that good grade. This is our normal.
Pretty much every day, we deprecate ourselves to feel better and to sometimes make others feel better. I remember countless time moping over my math grade then blurring the truth by laughing it off to people who scored higher than me. Though for the person listening to me, he/she wouldn't get the slightest hint of the amount of hatred I had for myself.
In Sherman Alexie's story, he says things like "born a goofy reservation mixed drink" to show everyone that this is his life. He comforts himself by understating things that affect him and keeps this nonchalant tone to make it seem like everything is okay the way it is. Of course it's never just "okay." Taking it for granted, I wondered how does "my father was arrested, charged with attempted murder" not spur anxiety being the son? But soon enough, it was this young minority being isolated, confined, and having his life on the line from his condition and his ethnicity that was drawing this hidden truth under all this sarcasm and humor. Growing up on a reservation, being born with a condition with risk of death, and being surrounded by alcohol was Sherman Alexie's normal.
Being in Troy High and living in 2019, where everything is diverse and we all accept these differences, is what these minorities back then envied and wished for change. Many turned to alcohol while we turn to our friends to rant in order to solve our problems. We can petition for change and have everybody included in it with an actual chance to obtain that change. If we look at before...it took one person to basically ruin an entire culture in which these victims had literally no right, according to the Supreme Court, to live peacefully without any restrictions.
The power to change is a privilege in life, for the better or for worse. Except that the lives we all live are different, making infinite definitions of "normal."
I agree! Normal is based on the enviornment you grow in, your parents, and various factors around you. And our normal is ever changing! Our normal in college is probably going to be different from our normal in high school which was different in our normal in elementary school.
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