The trouble with ordinary...

          Growing up, my family lived in an average house in a pretty average town.

The town of Prestonsburg, Kentucky was not large enough to be a full-fledged city, but was not really small enough to make it one of those quaint little towns that you might see on postcards that make you think of places like Mayberry.  Our town had a couple movie theatres, a few strip malls, three McDonalds and even a Wal-mart.  It was a place devoid of any kind of claim to fame. 

There wasn’t a giant ball of yarn that beaconed motorists that drove though to stop in and snap photos.  It wasn’t the birthplace of some celebrity that came back from time to time and the people that lived in our town were not rich.  They had ordinary jobs and led ordinary lives.  All of my friends, being born to average parents, were of course, average as well.  I was surrounded by average folks that did nothing overly extraordinary on a day to day basis.  They got up, went to jobs, came home and lived quiet lives behind picket fences that lined manicured lawns in which they mowed every Saturday.

Surrounded by all this ordinary, there was never any expectation to be anything else than just that.  Ordinary.  Average.  Everyday.

While there is essentially nothing wrong with any of those, I grew up believing that I was just that.  I was not tall or short.  I was not especially gifted at sports, nor was I ever on the honor roll.  It seemed to me that there is something comforting in ordinary.  It somehow feels safe to simply blend in.

It wasn’t until my ordinary existence unraveled that I realized how mundane mediocrity really is.  In losing my life of ordinary, I learned to expect extraordinary.  I took one step into the abyss of uncertainty, and now I not only expect exceptional, I anticipate amazing.  Had I not left those things that were usual, I would have known just how unusual that I am.

I love watching scary movies but then I have to sleep with a night light because I am terrified of the dark.

I can spin both my arms all the way around at the elbow and then bend them at the same time.

I love being the center of attention and after years of never telling anyone how I really felt, I have somehow found my voice.

This boy from normal has discovered phenomenal, fabulous and stupendous.  I now refuse less than marvelous.  Although an ongoing work in progress, I am an amazing reflection of divine perfection and the only thing that is still ordinary is that everyday is full of infinite opportunities for new experiences, new lessons and new insights.

I will not be your cliché.  I will not be your version of what you think I should be nor will I be labeled by your conventions and traditions.

With all the wonder and awe around me, I, like so many others are often asked to comply with conformity, to somehow settle for common…and lamentably, most do.

But to those that ask this of me, I simply say, “No.”