Normal?

Normal. Whats that? In this day and age that goes through a lot of interpretation. I was never normal some would say. Not in a bad way or a weird way, I just marched to the beat of my own drum. Example; back in grade school I would read Star Trek books on the bus. That doesn't sound bad. Yeah but think of the time, this was the early 70s. Star Wars hadn't made liking science fiction chic. Heinlein. Clark. Tolkein. Burrows. Poe. Classics. At my small town school I was made fun of because of my interest. Bullied even. I won 1st place at my 8th grade science fair for my display on the Bermuda Triangle. I loaned all my Bermuda Triangle books to a pretty high school senior girl I barely knew. Yeah a pretty face can always make me do things. But thats normal.

At Kemper I was accepted for who I was. My honor. My loyalty. It didn't matter as I found others who liked the same thing. I found others who didn't. I found others who introduced me to other things; music, food, from where they were from.

As I got older I also found many who tried to re-write their younger history. Not me. People say I live in a fantasy world for liking my fantasy role play games or Star Trek. But I don't try to be someone I'm not nor live a life I didn't live. Remember, I know where the bodies are buried; in other words I remember how you were. Normal is boring.

Life is meant to be lived. You should slide into the last years of your life and by the time they lower you in the ground, it should be like when you slow down and come to a stop after riding a roller-coaster. How you act on the roller coaster is what you will remember and how you will be remembered. You can't change it. Good or bad. That's who you are.

Me? Normal? In this day and age I am some what normal. My 'more' normal friends would still just shake their head, but they know and accept me.

I know when they get their Starfleet Communiuqe they will think of me. Especially if they were deployed and everyone in their unit knew they were in Starfleet when they would get it during mail call and everyone in their unit gave them crap for it. And if they run for any office in Texas and are asked how long they have been in Starfleet, they will think of me.  Hey. Us non-normal guys have to get our fun where we can.