Am I Abnormal? When Being Quiet Is Mistaken for Being Broken
Am I Abnormal? When Being Quiet Is Mistaken for Being Broken I recently received a phone call from one of my former students that made me stop and reflect deeply. It was in the evening, shortly after the sunset prayer. He wanted to know whether he was normal or abnormal and he felt I was the only person who could help him answer that question, because I knew him well enough. He explained that some of his classmates in college had begun labelling him as antisocial, selfish, even a misfit. Not because of anything harmful he had done, but because they did not understand him. What hurt most was not the labels themselves, but the fact that he was beginning to carry them. Slowly, almost unconsciously, he was on the verge of submitting to a story about himself that was never his to begin with. When Difference Starts to Feel Dangerous What confused him most was this: he did interact with people. He chatted with everyone. He was even the class representative and a popular one ...