In this first installment of the Quote Journal special episodes, Juliana uses a randomly selected quote from The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater as a jumping off point for an informal reflection on perspectives around normalcy, weirdness, and self-concept in relation to other people. It's all very off the cuff so it's a pretty chill time. If you're watching on Youtube please enjoy a speed-drawing of this episode's cover art along with the audio.

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Author's note: it kind of irks me that i didn't define the terms "weird" or "normal" at any point in this episode but just know that i'm working from the presumption that we all understand how the terms are being used in this context: unique, different, individual vs. average, common, typical. weirdness and normalness, while sometimes referred to as if they are things one can "be," aren't concrete definable human traits like, say, having brown eyes is. so even when i talk about them as if they are objective descriptors, i know that they are incredibly subjective terms. case in point: "weird" is often used in a pejorative sense when describing a person, but when i use it to describe a person i always mean it as the highest form of praise (and so does Blue Sargent). meanwhile, the first definition of the word on google is "suggesting something supernatural; uncanny." language is a beautifully imprecise form of communication. also at one point i say i don't think i'm often perceived as weird, and that phrasing sort of makes sense in the context of what i was getting at but, honestly? please understand that i have no actual freaking clue how other people perceive me (and, quite frankly, it's none of my business).

Music by BlackPyBeats from Pixabay