What Does it Mean to Be ‘Normal’?

For Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, let’s vow to celebrate our differences.

Apples are a traditional Rosh Hashanah food. Photo by Benjamin Wong on Unsplash

Shana tova! It’s Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish new year —but my family’s not at temple, because, in our small town in Washington State, there is no temple.

I’m remembering my own childhood, missing school each year to go with my family to our shul, a half-hour away, to listen to the shofar, to sit down and stand up and sit down and stand up again. It got boring sometimes: I couldn’t sing along, because the Hebrew prayers were different than the weekly Shabbat ones I knew by heart.

But I never questioned that I was right where I was supposed to be.

Today I’m reflecting on how far America has come. Because I remember times when I told my teachers I’d be missing school for Rosh Hashanah, and rather than a kind holiday greeting, they angrily replied, “You better make up the work!”

From these teachers, there was no acknowledgment that religious holidays were legally excused absences. There was no acknowledgment that I was an impressionable little kid who wanted to feel acceptance from her teachers.

Instead, there was a constant message, both spoken and implied: Your holiday — your holy day — is not normal, so it’s not real. They treated…