Weird, as defined by dictionary.com, means “of a strikingly odd or unusual character; strange.” I’m sure everyone reading this has heard that word used to describe something they’ve said or done. Sometimes it hurt, sometimes it amused, but throughout everything I’m willing to bet the word always stuck with them.

One afternoon a few years back, I was talking with my grandfather. During our conversation, he asked me how high school was treating me. It took me a second to think of an answer, but I finally responded with, “Well, you know, I’m liked by everyone, but I’m still kinda weird.” My grandfather just looked at me, smiled, and then asked me something I would never forget.

He said, “Is there really someone that can be defined as weird? And if there is, who decides who’s weird and who isn’t?”

I‘d never thought of that before. Being weird was just a fact that everyone seemed to learn once they hit puberty. What no one knew, however, was the “weird standard” we were all held up against was almost non-existent.

Sure, I searched for what was normal and universal, but I never found an answer that didn’t take away who I wanted to be.  Everyone has to have quirks and strange qualities that mold them. Otherwise, we face the possibility of entering a feared society among the ranks of Ayn Rand’s “Anthem” or George Orwell’s “1984.”

I guess it makes sense that a high school student would fall prey to such labels and identifications; as adolescents we don’t know who we are, we don’t fully understand where we belong and we don’t always have the greatest situations surrounding us. But as undergraduate or graduate students – as people a stone’s throw away from being that which we are – labels shouldn’t be allowed to rent space in our schedules.

Seriously, how can one type of individual truly be considered the norm when not one person is the same as the next? Hopefully as college students now we can look back and see the band geek, the cheerleader, the lone poet, and the star quarterback are nothing but representations “of…strikingly odd or unusual character[s].”

No matter what it is, labeling and name-calling is quite a destructive thing. So if a bully doesn’t get to a kid by saying he’s weird one day. He tries the next day with stupid, the next with sissy, and finally winding up with fag. None are true, but a person’s mind, especially a child’s mind, is always susceptible to what others think of them.

When you look deeper into the meaning and history of the word, you can find that “weird,” or “wyrd” as it used to be spelled, meant “of or relating to fate or the Fates.” What makes us weird predicts our future. It depicts who we will be, how we will live our lives and what we will contribute to our potential. Being strange or unusual just emphasizes and enhances who we are as independent creatures. Are you really willing to hold back the pieces of your life that entitle you to individuality?

So, the next time someone calls you weird turn to them proudly and say “Thank you,” because as far as compliments go, I’d say that’s the best one yet.

Debra Flax is a junior majoring in journalism. Her columns run on Thursday.