Who is this person?

I spent a long time trying to be normal. I watched how people moved through a room, how they said the right thing without thinking first. I practiced. I got quite good at it.

I have a friend who, when it's just the two of us, is himself.

The moment someone else arrives, he plays a role. He talks nicer. His voice gets higher and more cheerful.

And I think: "Mais qui c'est cette personne ?"

Who is this person?

That's when I understood that the people who look effortlessly normal are performing too. They've just practiced for so long they don't feel it anymore.

Normal changes. What was normal fifty years ago looks strange today. What's normal in one country is weird in another. It's an agreement, and some of us never learned to perform it without effort.

I'm not sure he even notices he does it.

I don't know which one is the real him. Maybe both.