Word - Belonging and Community

Growing up, I never felt like I belonged anywhere. I never felt like I had community. I still get jealous when I hear people talking about how close they are with their family or how they have such a close group of friends. I could never make connections like that and I could never understand having those kinds of connections. After learning about different cultures in this class, I see that a lot of them do have community but they also get their sense of belonging from nature. That is something I can relate to. I have always felt the most relaxed and the most at home when I am in the mountains. It doesn't matter if I'm hiking, laying in my hammock, or just laying out looking out at the stars. I have never felt more of a connection to anything else than I do when I am out in nature. Nature is just this incredible force that feels like it can do just about anything. I may not feel like I belong in any one particular place, but I always feel some sense of belonging in nature and I know that other people feel that way too. Through that sense of belonging, I might finally be able to find that sense of community that other people have. Just as primal religions gain their sense of belonging through the land and build community off of that, I would like to build my community off nature as well.

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