We all deserve a chance to be abnormal

The norm sucks, I mean it really sucks. Some of us have grown up in communities and situations where everything is done according to a particular order, even the career path of an average person can be guessed. The norm discourages initiatives and kills any iota of analytical prowess. It charts a course for our lives and demands that our lives fits into it.

The norm is like a straight road which demands that no matter the way you are going to, you must go through that straight road. The norm is the normal way of doing things, it is similar to an unwritten rule, not really binding but generally accepted to be the right way and approach of doing things. It may not be the best way but due to the need to conform to a certain tradition or pathway, it is referred to as the way. Any attempt to deviate from the norm is always scorned, despised and discouraged. The ones that are courageous enough to deviate from the norm are the ones that eventually succeed.

I currently study Accounting at Covenant University and the norm in my course, at least to the best of my knowledge is to finish with a B.Sc., proceed abroad for postgraduate studies and then return back to work for a multinational. This is a great plan, but I have always thought about the fact that this may have been someone’s path in the past and due to its success, it became the blueprint for every other person. However we are different! We have different interests and passions, the issue is many a time we have had this blurred thinking pattern that success is defined by a particular career pattern or actions.

The many different problems in the world cannot be solved by people thinking the same way, we must let our imagination run wild but safe. Ten years ago, some career paths were regarded as ones for failures. Photography, music amongst others were seen as part time careers and not sufficient enough to provide a living for people, however some people defied the odds and norms and turned out successful in these fields and now these professions are taken seriously.

Personally I know people great at many things but are victims of the norm and are now studying courses they do not have a single interest in due to parental influence and the society’s way of thinking. These people could have saved time by going ahead with their interests early in life.

We must therefore be courageous enough to pursue our interests and deviate from the status quo. Success may have defined principles but does not have defined patterns; there are underlying principles on the way to success but there are no particular ways at arriving at it

We all deserve a chance to be different,

We deserve a chance to make unpopular decisions guided by our specific interests,

We deserve a chance to discover our passions and follow them

We all deserve a chance to deviate from the norm

We all deserve a chance to be abnormal.