The official site of the Torch, the student-run newspaper at Glenbrook North High School.

Torch

The official site of the Torch, the student-run newspaper at Glenbrook North High School.

Torch

The official site of the Torch, the student-run newspaper at Glenbrook North High School.

Torch

Say farewell to normalcy

Kylie2

A participant in the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen, Katherine Jenkins, completes a scavenger hunt item. This was just one of the many GISHWHES items that were accomplished. Photo courtesy of  Ali Mesenbrink
A participant in the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen, Katherine Jenkins, completes a scavenger hunt item. This was just one of the many GISHWHES items that were accomplished. Photo courtesy of Ali Mesenbrink

What’s the weirdest and most ridiculous thing you’ve ever done? For me it’s probably when I dressed up like a cheerleader and did a solo routine at Union Station, bidding the bystanders to have an amazing day at work.

Now, before you start to question my hobbies, you should know that I didn’t just do this for kicks, although, admittedly, I did do some high knees. I did this because of an event called the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen (GISHWHES).

GISHWHES was a revelatory experience for me. Never before had I felt so comfortable in my own skin and so proud of the things of which I am capable. It made me embrace my inner weird and understand that being “normal” is completely overrated. Being wacky is much more fun.

Over the past two years, my team and I have made seductive outfits out of cheese, taken pictures of firefighters dressed entirely in kale, videotaped adults in formal wear participating in a Big Wheel race and much more. Some Orchestra members might remember performing “Carry On Wayward Son” by Kansas on extremely short notice one day last November for a scavenger hunt. That was us.

Doing something completely out of your comfort zone is liberating and enlightening. For example, the adult Big Wheel race taught me that people will often do whatever you ask, either out of kindness or curiosity. Projecting a film in an abandoned drive-in theater made me realize that nobody’s going to stop me from doing what I want to do.

Through GISHWHES I got an amazing opportunity to live my life the way I never had before. But who says an opportunity is needed? Anyone can do something special, or unique or bizarre anytime they want. If I had the urge to, I could once again don my cheerleading uniform and embarrass myself in a public place. But who cares? It’s only embarrassing if you think it is.

The GISHWHES slogan is “Death to Normalcy,” but it doesn’t just apply to the scavenger hunt. It’s an everyday code to live by. Weirdness is a virtue, not a disadvantage. And the more people who realize this, the more fun can be had.