The Daily Maybe #11: Abnormality Is The New Black
Being unorthodox can be pretty cool.
Greetings and salutations, dear Reader.
…yeah okay that’s a bit much. Hi! I missed two days of The Daily Maybe, and that’s bad, but I’m back with something I’m actually excited to write, and that’s good!
Today’s post is a result of me realising just how mildly irregular my life is. While not particularly exciting, there are a few aspects of my life that blatantly disregard what you might consider “the norm.” That said, I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
After thinking about these parts, I figured I might write about them. And yes, maybe stick a moral lesson or two here.
Let’s get into it!
So, every student expects their summer job to be “normal,” right? Working during the day, doing something of only mild interest, with meh people, all while counting down the hours till we can go home?
That’s the norm to me, and a lot of my friends. It’s kinda shitty, but it works. This summer, however, my potential job is the exact opposite of everything I just described.
I’m currently in the hiring process for an online teaching job (pray I get it pls). Though nothing special on the surface, it’s actually pretty strange to work with.
See, this job is based in China. Or rather, my potential students are. For those who may not know, China is twelve hours ahead of Toronto, where I live. That means the hours for this are…
Well, they’re not exactly 9–5.
The hours for teaching are relatively late at night and egregiously early in the morning. There’s nothing to do during the day, since all the students are asleep on the other side of the world. It’s a little different from my last job working retail.
These hours seemed like a deal-breaker for me at first. After thinking about them for a second, though, I realised just how much of a blessing this irregularity is.
See, now that the semester is over and my summer has begun, my sleeping pattern is… Non-existent, really. Sporadic, maybe?
Really bad, let’s go with really bad.
With an early-start job, I’d have to wake up early, which in turn would force me to sleep properly. Plus, working online means no stressing over a morning commute or anxiety over dealing with coworkers — I just have to wash up, get dressed, and teach kids; something I love doing.
The point is, this seemingly weird job is actually perfect for me. Irregularity works.
Alright, now we know abnormality can work great for jobs. Though the standard day job can seem easy and familiar, breaking from the norm can actually work pretty well.
What about for friendships?
See, though I live here now, I’m not a Toronto native. I was born in London, England, and moved here at 16. Naturally, there are some friends I still talk to from back home, and those friendships are going great…
…but they’re a tad weird in their own right.
Take my friend Zara, for example. She is one of my closest friends, someone I love talking to every day, and a person I simply cannot imagine life without.
She’s kind of a big deal.
Though we talk a lot, and have a friendship much like any other, it’s still strange to think about. We’re a literal ocean apart, and though we knew and befriended each other a year before I even moved, we weren’t all that close at the time.
Yet, here we are, now three years post-move, closer than ever. I’m not going to give you a long-winded story about how that came about, but that’s weird, right? All this distance has actually been kinda great for us.
Don’t get me wrong, it sucks being able to only ever see Zara through Skype or Snapchat. I feel like because we have such a mediated experience of each other now, because we can always wait till we’re most presentable before talking, we miss out on some genuine moments that we would otherwise have in person.
That said, the mediation has definitely had some benefits. Whenever Zara and I have had to deal with heavier or more dramatic stuff between us — and believe you me, there’s been a decent amount — not seeing each other every day has been helpful. With more time to think between conversations, we can work through any problems faster, instead of having to deal with awkward encounters or saying the wrong thing in a heated moment.
The old adage, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” really stands true here.
Weird as it may be at times, Zara’s friendship is something I am eternally grateful for.
So that’s irregularity being pretty damn cool in my life. But what about yours, dear Reader?
Or rather, ours. How has abnormality been good for society lately?
With the current American President, strangeness has definitely been in plentiful supply in recent times. The example I want to turn to here, however, is not quite as prominent, but easily just as annoying.
I am, of course, talking about Kanye West.
Okay, relax; I’m not about to detail some hidden good in Kanye’s recent comments about slavery, nor am I going to label those as merely “abnormal.”
Kanye’s statement of four hundred years of slavery seeming “like a choice” was disrespectful, idiotic, and downright disgraceful. I had a whole piece on this in the works, but decided to scrap it after realising everything I wanted to say had already been said to better effect on Twitter.
These tweets are the brilliant abnormalities I’m talking about here.
The tweets condemning Kanye and educating him (and myself and others) about the horrible realities of slavery are important. Firstly, they contribute to the spread of factual, researched information, which in today’s headline-crazed society is more important than perhaps ever before.
Kanye’s idiocy has sparked an important conversation of not only spreading historical accuracy, but also the true power of celebrity. People of influence have a responsibility to be extremely careful with the statements they make, lest their words be twisted to further causes that are damaging to society.
Now, I’m sure you’re wondering why I’ve labeled these tweets and others like them as the abnormalities here. The thing is, morally and factually right as they may be, it just feels weird that even now, we as a society have to actually reassert the fact that slavery was horrific and abhorrent and just plain bad.
Though slavery in America officially ended “way back” in 1865, racism is still very much alive and well today. Kanye’s statement has done nothing to help; pretty much the opposite. That said, the discourse on slavery, racism, and the after-effects/pervasiveness of both in America today is also alive and well, and the rapper’s comments have at least given some renewed fervor in those conversations.
Again, nothing good about Kanye’s statement itself. The discourse and information being spread as a result, however, are good things.
Plus, on the lighter side of this (if there can be one), people’s understanding of Kanye’s idiocy gave Twitter a new meme with #IfSlaveryWasAChoice.
And there are some GEMS.
Abnormal is an understatement here, but I’ll be damned if the people of Twitter didn’t show their best in response to Kanye’s crazy comments.
And that’s that.
🍉 I came up with the idea for today’s blog shortly after waking up. Turns out, though I do find blogging advice and Twitter trends useful for blog inspo, my best ideas come when I just sit back and have a conversation with myself.
Might just have to write more on that some day.
As for what I’ve been up to lately… Well, like I said, my life’s kinda meh. Been playing through the Season 4 content on Fortnite lately and loving it. The superhero theme makes the game feel almost new again!
Oh also I’ve been binging Jane The Virgin for like the past month. It’s SO good, and I’m excited to see what projects Gina Rodriguez pops up in after the show’s final season.
Alright, that’s all I got.
Till next we meet,
Sarim
