Adam mourned,
“She has trouble
acting normal
when she’s
nervous.”
I’ve never heard
a more relatable
thought or lyric.
Elastic ideas stretch to fit.
That idea fits me. Perfectly.
I have trouble acting
normal when I’m nervous,
but that struggle
stretches
past
fifty
years.
My wiring is different,
divergent, in part,
disabled, but also
super-capable.
Trauma is imprinted,
impressed, pressure-cooked
into the making.
The lesson
I am taking away
I am not breaking. Still,
I am resisting. Yet,
I am insisting
that I can have
a normal life.
But, I can’t.
Because I am
not normal.
I’ll always remember
that I am different
and that I see things
in ways others can’t.
:: Realization ::
Why would I want
a normal life
when I can live
such a strange one?
The idea feels
like unfurling
butterfly wings.
It seems,
I am not of the earth,
but of the sky, and,
if, I was meant to fly,
I must grab and hold
onto that birthright.
“She said it’s only in my head.”
©️ Tenpenny, 2026.
Lyrics from Round Here, by Adam Duritz of Counting Crows.