Are You So-Called Normal?
“You will find enough of the abnormal
in the so-called normal to meet your needs,”
Mrs Wilhelmina Harbert said to me.
A Country Living quote shared by Sue Newell
prompted me to remember that advice from my college counselor.
I was majoring in music therapy.
It was my junior year.
I was having sleepless nights.
Music Therapy jobs were few and far between.
Most were in State Hospitals where severely disturbed patients were.
The thorns in my dear music therapy patients at the Stockton State Hospital
where I was interning kept me from seeing their beauty.
I only saw their distress.
And I cared too much.
I couldn’t leave the thorns behind
when I left. I carried them with me.
Mrs. Harbert wisely suggested I switch my major to regular education.
“You love people. You care about them.
Our public school classrooms need people like you.”
So, in my senior year, I began the work of obtaining
my regular elementary education teaching credential.
Smartest move I could have made!
I used my music 🎶 as therapy every day in the classroom
with countless so-called normal kids.
It helped calm the abnormal in them.
I helped them appreciate their uniqueness.
(I’ll write more about how music therapy worked
in another blog later that week.)
appreciate the fun
in those outside the norm
parts of us.
I hope you appreciate the parts of you
that are outside the norm, too.
They make you special.
Do you know what some of them are?
Tell me!
It’s fun to know I have a lot of the abnormal
in my so-called “Normal” self!
See ya tomorrow.
Thanks for visiting
JanBeek
