This is something I have been giving quite some thought lately. It's probabely part of adolescent anxiety about facing the world, and all that great stuff. Do you, at whatever stage you currently are in your life, feel a sense of belonging? The way we've currently designed society seems to be ideal for one thing; feeling lost and isolated. An easily replaced cog in a vast and incomprehensible system, a system that no one really seems to wholeheartedly support anyway. I know there is also a lot of good in the world. We all have to go through different stages in our lives, and many (or some) people seem to find peace eventually. I am just wondering how other people feel. Sorry if this thread is a bit of a downer.
I've never really felt like I "belonged" in any particular place. Oh sure, I've been a part of many things and have derived a great deal of enjoyment from many of them, but once I have moved on to something else, I really don't regret leaving the old thing behind. I feel like we should carve our own path and follow whatever makes us happy (as long as it is within reason and decency). When you get right down to it, the only place we really belong is in our own skin. It may not always be comfortable there, but that's why we get up every morning and try to make the most of it.
The only place I feel belonging is with friends or when I'm left to my own thoughts, and as an introverted individual is where I usually like to be anyway. In a larger scale, no I don't really feel a sense of belonging. I'm just a guy in a sea of people who goes out to do his daily monotonous tasks without much feeling attached to anything. I try not to really think about it much, as the loneliness can creep up on me. Just how things work today with how robotic you need to be to get anything done.
I feel a sense of belonging when I am with my friends. There is no place I belong, but there are people I belong with. Except maybe the beach. The beach gives me a powerful sense of "belonging", especially the ocean. Also, there have been about five different girls who I felt I "belonged with" but then something ended up coming between us and we had to move on. What can I say, my heart is fickle and my mind makes less sense than a nickle. :derpe:
I'm not going to say anything new here but, yeah! Belonging tends to be with a group of people. A house is just a location, it's the people in it that make it a home. I could say there are places on Skype or on the internet generally that I could have or would swear as being a place of belonging. Outside of my home right here, I guess there's a pretty good spot I'm happy in; in front of this keyboard right now. Why? Because this Laptop I've dubbed 'Rejus' is my preferred tool for creativity and interaction with people I love and have come to know. I might not have met them too many times. Some, I know exclusively as an entity that sends words my way. But we're in the age where a Pen Pal can be a lot more engaging. Especially when the world can be traversed by a simple greeting on a screen within seconds. I guess I'm just a rosier person than most. Nothing I'd consider immature, just how I deal with my life.
Those are some despairing thoughts on the world, is there anything that you are attached to? For me personally, I used to feel that life was mundane until I gave myself something to escape from the monotony (namely making vlogs of short stories I write). No matter how cruddy my life would get, I will always have that to make me feel like did something interesting with my life. Not tryin' to be preachy, just tryin' to help you out because I used to feel the same way
Yes, there are things I'm attached to, but they're mostly more ideological than materialistic. I have hobbies and that sort of thing to keep me content, but they're usually restricted to involving myself. I'm just a quiet individual who intentionally tries to keep out of larger affairs as I find them more of a chore than of something containing intrinsic value. It's just as a result of that, I find sense of belonging with myself and my inner thoughts. I don't really consider that to be despairing even if my post came across like that.
I don't really belong anywhere, and I'm okay with that. I learned a long time ago that most people simply aren't worth the hassle of fitting in with.
I don't fit in much with my family. As a family of five, I am mostly the one left out, because I have different tastes. I love the, dearly, and individually, I have moments with them, but as a whole, I often feel I don't fit in.
Not fitting in just means you need to carve out a place for yourself. No one can say you don't belong if you're in a niche you made.
Not really, no. I've always felt like I'm on the outside looking in, and while I've enjoyed a lot of moments in life, I've never really felt like a 'part' of those moments. I've always felt like a voyeur in the world, watching other people laugh, cry, love and hate - living vicariously through them and always wondering what they feel, what they think, what it would be like to be a part of it. Even though I have friends, it never seems like I'm actually a 'part' of the group, but rather just someone who is there along for the ride, there to simply observe but not to join in, and I guess because of that I've never really felt attached to anyone. On the outside looking in. I could probably move anywhere in the world and wouldn't feel one bit homesick (and I have) because the only place I really call home is within my own mind.
What does belonging feel like? I'm really unsure of what my answer here should be, since I've never explicitly felt like I did or didn't belong. Unless this is a discussion about belonging with a more concrete definition, in which case I'm not sure what it is I should feel like I belong in. I'm pretty sure I belong exactly where I currently am, in every sense, since if that was not the case, I'd either feel (something that I expect would be) pretty odd, or not be where it is I am for much longer. However, if we delve into a more philosophical meaning of belonging, (first off, we'd really have to define the feeling of belonging and its cause, but beyond that) I'd probably feel like I do belong, but I'm not sure then this post would belong here.
Belong as in feel accepted or belong as in actually owning someone? Slavery's not cool. Unless it's roleplay. Then it's kinky.
