What is Normal

What is normalcy? What does it mean when you're not normal, and you're different or strange? To be honest, I rather be strange than fit into the seemingly perfect cookie cutter life that society tells us to strive for... You know what kind of life I'm describing... The live in suburbia, have 2.5 kids, and drive a hummer kind of normal. Although some of this normalcy sounds appealing, mostly just the procreation part of it, I want more out of my life.
I want to do something I love, and help people while doing it. I want to leave my mark on the world, and have my work and research published so others can appreciate it. I want to fall in love,  stay in love, and get married in a beautiful church or a beach with a beautiful sunset, and I never, ever, want to stop learning.
When did learning and school just become the means to an end? The end being this "normal American life". When did college become a place to just scrape by and get a degree so you can work a job in a cubicle that you loathe? I believe I first realized this shift of culture in my freshman year as an undergrad when some douche in one of my intro business classes said with an arrogant tone " yeah, well the only reason I went to college is my parents told me I had to in order to take over my Dad's oil business when he's 6 feet under if you know what I mean". I'm pretty sure I couldn't stifle the choke/scoff that came out of me.
I guess all I'm saying is that normal is not ideal. So don't make the idea of normalcy your goal. Because being normal is also being mediocre.