Dear Prudence,
I can’t make a single normal friend. Not one. Not that not being the stereotype of “normal” is at all a bad thing, of course. All my friends are a little unusual: One goes into the woods to light candles and worship something I’ve never heard of; another is a gender I can’t pronounce; one dissociates and writes code at 2 a.m. while not blinking and singing Bad Omens; another is obsessed with serial killers. I support them all, but I can’t help but wonder, is there something about me that attracts unusual folks? I look around at other people and their friends laughing and talking about movies, and I wonder how my friend (lying on the floor talking about aliens) found me. Is there something about me that isn’t “normal,” or something that attracts them? Is there a way I can make more “normal” friends? My parents worry about me, they say I’ll be a loser in college if I can’t make “normal” friends. I don’t know what it is, and I don’t want to lose my friends, but how can I befriend more normals, to satisfy my family at least?
—I Swear I’m Normal