Katie Pruitt's debut album, Expectations, a large measure of freedom in speaking about the specifics of her experience. Those experiences, such as growing up gay in the south and spending time in a Catholic school, weren't always talked about by the country artists that she listened to growing up. Now, Pruitt says she hopes her music will speak to someone who is growing up in a situation where they feel isolated and out of place.

Read on to learn the story behind Pruitt's new song, "Normal," told in the artist's own words. 

That was my experience: Like, "Here's how it's supposed to be, and I'll follow this very specific path and be a good person," or whatever. I think it's a lot more complicated than that.

And [on the second verse of the song, I talk about how] I went to a Catholic middle school and elementary school. We'd go to church, like, a few times in the middle of the week. It was definitely not normal, but normal for that [situation.] A lot of other kids I know just went to public school.

The next verse fast forwards and puts me in Athens, Ga. [ in college], where there's fraternities and sororities and everyone's going out at night and there's a hookup culture and a drinking culture. That's normal for that scene.

So I was sort of visualizing certain scenes in my life, trying to put people there, and saying, "This is normal when I was in Catholic school. You kneel, you pray, you do the sign of the cross. And then in Athens...it's a college scene."

And in both instances, I felt really out of place.

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