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When I hear the word belonging, I think about losing my belongings. I lose things fairly often and I am terrible at remembering where I put them. (Which is weird because I would say I have a good memory.) I am also terrible at looking for things, and usually whenever I lose something my family finds it. But that's just what comes to mind when I hear the word. After thinking about it for a while, I usually think about belonging to something, but not feeling like I belong. Belonging to a group of friends, belonging to a company, a team. But what I really think about is wondering if you belong. Does Everyone wonder if they belong? I certainly do, I always want to fit in, how do people know what belongs, who decides?

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Belonging means ownership and the owning of an object and sadly once a person. In the current days it could mean property, relationships, friendships, etc

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Belonging makes me think about when you feel like you are at home with a person, place, community, or thing. For me, there's this walk I take my dog on (It’s through the forest) and mid-way through the walk there's this swing and I love to just sit there and blast music into my AirPods. I feel like I belong in that place, in this world, it’s where I feel safe, a space I can go just to calm down and think. Another time I feel belonging is when I do it is when I take out my mowing tractor at my house in Vermont and I sit there and just circle our big field, slowly chipping away at the overgrown grass. I feel so happy and pleased with myself when I go mowing. (My mower’s name is MOWreen by the way)

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When I hear the word BELONGING, I think about having belongings. Something that comes to mind is when a person is in an airport, they carry their belongings. For example, I don't belong to anything. There haven't been any times I felt I did not belong.

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I think to belong means to be somewhere you feel comfortable to be yourself. I think it can sometimes have to do with being with people like you in some way, but I also think that belonging means being in a place or with people that make you feel okay showing who you are. I don’t think anyone else can say whether you belong, I think that only you can truly know that.

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uh…

Times I have belonged to something:

- Here at school

- At home

Times I have not belonged to something:

- At my old school because public school sucks.

it's literally so bad.

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When I hear the word belonging I think of someone belonging to a group of something , or just someone feeling like they fit in in general. Belonging can mean a lot of things.

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4032 -- Antarctica

Belonging. It’s a really weird idea if you think about it. What fits in, and what does not. Who creates the rules of what belongs? Does that person belong? If there were no rules of belonging, then what would the world be like? Would it go to chaos, or would nothing really change? These thoughts pass through my mind in the prison cell as the guard walks towards my cell, chainsaw in hand.

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Belonging is a weird word, I mean sure there are things that actually belong to people. But, I feel like there are certain issues when you use the words: this belongs to me. Slave owners claimed that black people and people of color belonged to them. It’s a word that has a horrible history and is used incorrectly often because I think no living being should belong to another living being. But there’s nothing I can really do about it so it might just continue to be used in a negative way. However, I think it’s entirely possible that belonging could be used in a positive way. Like how the word longing is clearly part of the word belonging and longing is a human emotion so it can’t be all that bad all the time.

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The reason I feel so at home at camp is because it’s the place I feel the most comfortable and part of the community.  It is the one time that I can be myself and let go of stress. It is magical in a way that as soon as you get there, you become part of it and can’t imagine life without it. It is strange to think of in the scale of my life, it is only a very small part of it time wise, and yet I think about it every day because I know I belong there.

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- Being part of a groupFitting in
- Pro, you have people who have your back and who care about you
- Community

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Being a part of something

Fitting in

Being in a group

Fayerwheather is a place where everyone should feel they belong.

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When you hear the word BELONGING, what do you think about? What comes to mind? Are there times you have belonged to something? Are there times you felt you did not belong? Spend a few minutes writing about BELONGING. You can define it, make a bulleted list, write a story about belonging… your choice. We will share answers when we are done.

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When you hear the word BELONGING, what do you think about? What comes to mind? Are there times you have belonged to something? Are there times you felt you did not belong? Spend a few minutes writing about BELONGING. You can define it, make a bulleted list, write a story about belonging… your choice. We will share answers when we are done.

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Mia had never felt like this before, the feeling of community, security, safety. Surrounded by people like her, they weren’t all the same but they were all connected, they all belonged. They belonged here. Together, in nature, it was as if the forest had scooped them up and whispered in a motherly voice “Stay here. Here you’re safe, this is where you belong.” But it wasn't just the forest, it was the other people there, people she connected with, people who understood that the forest was her home.

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When I think of belonging I think of…

Inclusion

Acceptance

Kindness

Security

Community

Fitting in

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When I hear the word belonging, I think of fitting in somewhere. Sometimes a place or a group of people, or just one person.  This person or place should describe you in some way, connect to what you look like, or feel like, feeling safe in your environment. For example, connecting to this school, someone could belong here because they connect to the community or feel accepted for who they are surrounded by the people who work here. When I think about the word itself, I think of “meant to be”.

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To me belonging means feeling appreciated and wanted by the people around you unconditionally. That means that the people you're with don’t have their own agenda or their own reasons for needing you or appreciating you; they just do it because they like being around you and they like you. But belonging also means that you sort of feel the same about those people and everyone there feels like they don't have to do anything to be accepted.

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Feeling like you are accepted in a community or place.

Knowing that you can be true to yourself and with others.

Being comfortable with the people or things surrounding you.

An example is feeling happy to speak about your interests or passions and knowing others won’t put you down for it.

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Society likes organization. It likes boxes. It likes groups. It likes clean blue lines on white crisp paper. Everyone has a place. A little box they cannot leave. To some it feels like a prison of stone and iron, to others like a home, and some do not notice it is there at all. But underneath, it is always a cage. Society likeslike to pick us apart and tell us what we should be like, what we are. And believe it. We like to stay in our little boxes. Sorted and pushed into a place with others supposedly like you, even though they are not like you. They are not you. We strive for that. The idea that we are the same. We stay in our boxes.

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When I hear the word “belonging” I think of a place that you belong in and feel comfortable. For example, a place where I feel comfortable is a soccer field. A place that when I’m on the field I feel like I’m meant to be there at that moment.

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WHEN I HEAR BELONGING

Being under the influence or care of someone or something.

Being in a place where you fit in.

Being at a place that you enjoy.

Being in a mental state that you enjoy.

Feeling wanted, ex: “I felt wanted my my adoptive parents, a sence of belonging rushed over me.”

Being with somebody that you love.

Being controlled by something.