“You know, it’s always the normal-looking ones who you’d least expect.”
This was the Chicago airport security guard’s response to me when I asked him if I looked like a social deviant who would have forbidden items in my carry-on bag. At this point, I had been back in the States for about half an hour, and one of the first people I talked to called me “normal.”
For the past year and a half, I have been the opposite of normal. During my time in Southeast Asia, I stood out in every way possible, from my white skin to my blonde hair to my blue eyes… oh yeah, and my towering height. Then, less than an hour back in my passport country, and I am once again “normal.”
Yet, I do not feel normal.
Normal is being surrounded by brown-skinned people, yet I have been thrown back into a world where I am in the majority.
Normal is responding to others in Hindi, yet once again I am surrounded by English.
Normal is hearing cattle lowing and dogs barking as I am falling asleep, yet the silence weighs heavy on my ears as I try to sleep.
Normal is only drinking water from a certified filter, yet my mom hands me a glass of water directly from the tap.
Normal is driving on the left side of the road while navigating crowded and dirty streets, yet I am suddenly sailing down a pristine highway on the right side of the road.
Normal is making sure I grab my dupatta (for modesty’s sake) before heading out the door, yet now I leave the house with bare legs (gasp!).
After a 15.5 hour plane ride from Delhi to Chicago (during which I am still surrounded by Indians speaking Hindi), I am abruptly thrust back into a place that is no longer normal for me, even though I look normal in it.
Just as I adjusted to my life in India, I know that I will re-adjust to life in America. However, I return a changed person, with a different perspective on the world. So, once again, I will have to establish a new “normal” for this next season of my life.
In the midst of another season of change, I hold onto this beautiful reminder and promise from the Lord: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.” (Isaiah 40:28-29) Praise to the unchanging God who gives me His own power when I feel as though I have no strength of my own.