Poll: Do you think of your life as normal?

[Kae]

Whelp! Simple question do you think of your life as a normal life or do you think it's strange or different.

I mean, I don't mean you and who you are but what happens in it, what kind of events happen?
Is it like peaceful and uneventful or really weird and you are always having to deal with new situations like a sitcom character?

Of course I ask because I'm in the latter camp, I've traveled a lot, been lost in forests, deserts and beaches, worked at a zoo, I've put out fires, I've been on fire on more than one occasion, been to dates without knowing they were dates, pretended I was dating someone else so that I could get into science conferences and so much strange stuff that there could easily be a tv show just about my life and you wouldn't run out of material until like season 6.
Point is that this bizarre eventful existence makes me feel very alien and like I don't get people at all and sometimes like I might be mentally ill and I'm just hallucinating like most of this shit, so I was wondering if most people consider their lives to be eventful or not and what sort of existential dread comes from it.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I have barely started my life, so I guess it is normal. I did better than most in school, but not that much better.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Up to now, my life's been remarkably unremarkable. I have an apartment, a job and hobbies. My life's path has been straight as an arrow: graduated from high school, worked for a few months, went to the military, went straight to studying after it (as in, I was relieved of duty on Thursday, and went to studying the next Monday), graduated and got a job. There's no adventuring the Mediterranean, living for a year in Siberia or working as a Red Cross employee healing the world. I'm a rather comfort-seeking personality and I value stability, so I'm not the kind of person who actively seeks out crazy stuff to partake in. Or my social circles are too small for me to get roped into things. Part of it might run in the family: both sides of my family consist of people like engineers, doctors, police chiefs, teachers and lawyers. Pillars of society if you will. I've always been bad at being "rebellious", because I never saw any reason to rebel against something.

I'm not shy, far from it. In fact I'll be the first one to answer the call to do something interesting. I just rarely make the initiative myself.

It's a rather dark realization I've had to make, but nerd stuff doesn't really make for a very interesting life. No one makes unique memories through just playing video games or watching movies. It's what you build around it that makes it interesting. Living in Scandinavia I don't have comic-cons, gaming conventions or other nerd mecca stuff to easily go to. In fact, I've had an occasional feeling for years now that somewhere there's some magnificent, joyous, vibrant and colourful life I'm not living and I'm pissing my life away on the pettiest shit. Then I think "was there something more I could have done to not feel this way?", and the answer is almost always "no". Geez, this got personal real fast.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Hrm, no. But I think I would have been content with a normal life. I've seen a lot of stuff, had some good fortunes after a fairly dismal teen years. Living in a train service access tunnel-level dismal. But I managed to pull myself up primarily by luck rather than skill. And that good luck seems to have carried me into my thirties.

Kind of tired though. I've seen enough of the world to know that I'm happiest where I am right now. But Rottnest Island could be a close second. I was thinking of buying an isolated little beach hut somewhere in the top end where I can see a cyclone. I haven't seen a cyclone yet. The monsoon, yeah ... big earthquakes, yeah. Floods, wildfires.

Never a cyclone.

So maybe I might plan living someplace I can be reasonably sure to see a cyclone. Which might be nice, because I think any place where you can wear a swimsuit and sandshoes as casual wear seems pretty idyllic to me. I'm kind of tired of cities. I feel like I want to move someplace with a small town on a coast somewhere. Warm all year round. Maybe open a beach-side cafe/bar. A place where you can actually learn people's names and see them on a weekly basis.

As long as the enterprise breaks even I'll be happy and I figure I can inject a bit of business expense tax-refundable fun into some small niche of the world. That being said I always get mixed signals about how rural Queenslanders will treat trans people ... but I figure they can't have too many objections with someone who just wants to lounge in the sun, and inject a bit of happiness into some small slice of beach culture somewhere.

 

[Saelune]

Normal compared to who?

 

[Lufia Erim]

I am very asocial, i go out of my way to avoid situations i would personally deem abnormal. I am quite content with the mundane routine of my life. Any excitement i get is from videogames.

That being said, i used to try and deviate from that lifestyle and be more social, but then i noticed a lot of people have needless drama and that's what made their life " exciting", and i didn't want that.

Also mandatory people suck.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Normal compared to who?

Normal compared to...Brian Stevenson of Galloway, Wisconsin.

 

[Kae]

-Snip-

Well, the question itself is of a rather personal nature so that's fine, besides it is interesting to hear of what is basically the opposite internal struggle to my own, you think your life is banal and boring and I think my life is so insane that there's no way everything I remember actually happened and I must have dreamt or hallucinated most of it and confused it with reality at some point.

Normal compared to who?

Well I meant your general perception of your life, basically whatever you choose can say a lot about you, for example, claiming your life to be normal could mean you are a highly empathetic person that easily relates to others and sees your own struggles akin to everyone else's struggles, or it could mean someone that has a very routinary life and is tired and burnt out or many other things really, what you choose to compare your life with is an inherent part of the question as it says a lot about who you are.

But for example, my own perception comes from me sharing stories both online and off, and from my friends claiming they are strange and from strangers on the Internet reacting in a very empathetic manner, offering hugs and words of comfort to a story which I thought was comical in nature, therefore demonstrating to me that my perspective is different by virtue of what I think of as fun anecdotes to break the ice in a conversation and possibly be funny are actually things most people find horrifying and traumatizing, thus if I what I think of as normal incites such extreme reactions, then what I perceive as normal is clearly abnormal.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I am very asocial, i go out of my way to avoid situations i would personally deem abnormal. I am quite content with the mundane routine of my life. Any excitement i get is from videogames.

That being said, i used to try and deviate from that lifestyle and be more social, but then i noticed a lot of people have needless drama and that's what made their life " exciting", and i didn't want that.

Also mandatory people suck.

Wow, I think we are on the same boat.

I mean during my first year of Uni, I did try to be more social like went with the flatmates to some nightclub but I realise it wasn't my thing especially when I didn't like coming back 3am in the morning and cover in sweat and smell of cigeratte. Heck I even decline one of the flatmate I did get along and with his gf to this asian nighclub (I'm asain irl) in favour of playing my online game that night. I liked to think something could had happened that night like I could of met a girl or something whatever. Next thing I knews, weeks later he told me he end up in hospital cos someone spite his drink (he was a kind of a ladies man).

Yeah, I have been perfectly fine working at my retail job for over 5 years now where my brother on the other hand seen to changed jobs or wanting to leave the current one every two years or so (fair do sometime it wasn't his decision to leave). I know for the fact the place I worked it actually not bad compared to others (no nasty customers). Also I was unemployed for a while so literally getting little cash is better than none!

Granted I do want abit more of an social life like hanging with mates in real life than online but they all lived far away and I'm the type who can easily make friends with strangers.

 

[Saelune]

Normal compared to who?

Well I meant your general perception of your life, basically whatever you choose can say a lot about you, for example, claiming your life to be normal could mean you are a highly empathetic person that easily relates to others and sees your own struggles akin to everyone else's struggles, or it could mean someone that has a very routinary life and is tired and burnt out or many other things really, what you choose to compare your life with is an inherent part of the question as it says a lot about who you are.

But for example, my own perception comes from me sharing stories both online and off, and from my friends claiming they are strange and from strangers on the Internet reacting in a very empathetic manner, offering hugs and words of comfort to a story which I thought was comical in nature, therefore demonstrating to me that my perspective is different by virtue of what I think of as fun anecdotes to break the ice in a conversation and possibly be funny are actually things most people find horrifying and traumatizing, thus if I what I think of as normal incites such extreme reactions, then what I perceive as normal is clearly abnormal.

Well, I mean, I am transgender which basically automatically makes my life not normal. But what about maybe compared to other trans people? Mixed there, since plenty of similarities -and- differences that sort of even me out there comparatively I feel.

But there are other aspects where I am like others like me in those regards. The "I dont know what to do with my life" creative type, or the anti-social gamer nerd, which also is not normal, but here is probably more normal due to the intended focus of this site.

But I am also A US citizen, which most people arent. Most of -us- are, or part of the UK, which again most people arent, but I bet more US and UK people relate to eachother than we do to someone in China.

I am not trying to be a smart-ass here by the way, I just have thought about this alot. Like, what is the "probability of being you?". Start with sex, I mean, Im guessing being born biologically male or female is about even, but is it 51% one way, 49 the other? And go from there until you get to -you-.

Sorry if I got carried away

In short, no I dont think I am normal in a general sense.

 

[Guffe]

Hmm... depends.
I pretty much divide my life in two, one is my civilian life and the other is my work life.
Answer: Work life is no and civilian life is yes.
If I'd have to choose one, I have more civilian in my life than work, so yes, I consider my life normal.

 

[Saelune]

Normal compared to who?

Normal compared to...Brian Stevenson of Galloway, Wisconsin.

Ugh, I kept taking this too seriously, and thinking too hard on it. I dunno

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

At the moment it's pretty normal. I have a job, I pay taxes, I play in an orchestra, and I have an old doggo.

BUT!

It will be changing soon since I got accepted into graduate school in Vancouver. I will have to be getting my shit together and moving north and doing that. I will be doing not so normal things once I'm up there, and I will be trying to figure out a whole new place.

I will say every now and then a 'not-so-normal' thing pops up and I try to do it because it breaks up the monotony. Like climbing Cambelback mountain, or something.

 

[Quazimofo]

Normal is a pretty relative term. My university experience hasn't left me with many stories so far, but it could still be best described as 'ad-libbed'. I'm sure life will get more interesting when I don't have to worry about education and basic necessities as much. I'll have so much more time for activities!

 

[Kae]

-Snip-

No, that's fine, I want to know about people's existential angst, it interests me a whole lot, most people at work get along with me pretty much exclusively because I'm willing to listen to them, even the one's I actively dislike, so hearing about this intrigues me.

Spoiler: See, for example, this post

I dunno, I'm a normal taxpayer and I make 400 dollars a month which is relatively normal; but on the other hand my family is anything but normal so *shrug*

With apologies to Guilion for calling his post boring and uninteresting, but it is.

It mentions something completely mundane and boring and then mentions perhaps a hint of an interesting tale by mentioning their family is abnormal, but they back up and shrug showing no interest in either the mundane parts of their life or the abnormal, no existential dread, no cares, no worries, thoroughly uninteresting.

Spoiler: And compare it to this post

Up to now, my life's been remarkably unremarkable. I have an apartment, a job and hobbies. My life's path has been straight as an arrow: graduated from high school, worked for a few months, went to the military, went straight to studying after it (as in, I was relieved of duty on Thursday, and went to studying the next Monday), graduated and got a job. There's no adventuring the Mediterranean, living for a year in Siberia or working as a Red Cross employee healing the world. I'm a rather comfort-seeking personality and I value stability, so I'm not the kind of person who actively seeks out crazy stuff to partake in. Or my social circles are too small for me to get roped into things. Part of it might run in the family: both sides of my family consist of people like engineers, doctors, police chiefs, teachers and lawyers. Pillars of society if you will. I've always been bad at being "rebellious", because I never saw any reason to rebel against something.

I'm not shy, far from it. In fact I'll be the first one to answer the call to do something interesting. I just rarely make the initiative myself.

It's a rather dark realization I've had to make, but nerd stuff doesn't really make for a very interesting life. No one makes unique memories through just playing video games or watching movies. It's what you build around it that makes it interesting. Living in Scandinavia I don't have comic-cons, gaming conventions or other nerd mecca stuff to easily go to. In fact, I've had an occasional feeling for years now that somewhere there's some magnificent, joyous, vibrant and colourful life I'm not living and I'm pissing my life away on the pettiest shit. Then I think "was there something more I could have done to not feel this way?", and the answer is almost always "no". Geez, this got personal real fast.

With apologies to Bartholen for using him as an example, but you know I can't hide my interests.

It mentions their life as being mundane and boring but reflects on their insecurities, what they think of it, perhaps longing for a more interesting more fulfilling life but at the same time complacency and comfort with their current life, clearly this person has some sort of internal struggle and some existential angst, despite their boring description of their life it's intriguing and interesting and it makes me want to ask further questions and find out more about them.

Of course any response that is on topic is valid, but I would be lying if I didn't say that I want to find out about people's insecurities, mostly so that I can form some level of an empathic bond that will make me feel better about my own insecurities, but such is the nature of people, they do things for their own sake, even those who help others in exchange of "nothing" do it for their own personal fulfilment, they get emotional catharsis out of it.

Point being, I liked your answer, you can go on as much as you like about those things I don't mind, I'll read all of it, but of course if you don't wish to talk about those things that's fine too.

 

[ArcaneGamer]

Whelp! Simple question do you think of your life as a normal life or do you think it's strange or different.

I mean, I don't mean you and who you are but what happens in it, what kind of events happen?
Is it like peaceful and uneventful or really weird and you are always having to deal with new situations like a sitcom character?

Of course I ask because I'm in the latter camp, I've traveled a lot, been lost in forests, deserts and beaches, worked at a zoo, I've put out fires, I've been on fire on more than one occasion, been to dates without knowing they were dates, pretended I was dating someone else so that I could get into science conferences and so much strange stuff that there could easily be a tv show just about my life and you wouldn't run out of material until like season 6.
Point is that this bizarre eventful existence makes me feel very alien and like I don't get people at all and sometimes like I might be mentally ill and I'm just hallucinating like most of this shit, so I was wondering if most people consider their lives to be eventful or not and what sort of existential dread comes from it.

"All I can say, is that my life is pretty plain, I like seeing the puddles gather rain..."

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Normal compared to who?

Normal compared to...Brian Stevenson of Galloway, Wisconsin.

Ugh, I kept taking this too seriously, and thinking too hard on it. I dunno

Well don't think too hard on it palbert. Remember to always WWAD. What would Archer do?

 

[sageoftruth]

Pretty much at this point. I got all the weird stuff out of the way as a child. Now, it's pretty normal. If anything, I wish I had the courage to make it less normal.

I was given a lot growing up and it feels disappointing to squander it all on a normal life. My parents' emphasis on constant self improvement has left me with a lot of different talents that just seem to be there, since I never give any of them the level of commitment required to achieve some form of greatness.

 

[Marik2]

I'm normal and not normal