Community Paper #2
Where Do We Belong?
It could be our place of work, the neighborhood that we live, or the people that we share a common hobby with, to us it is our community. We all have the need to be a part of something that we can share with others. The purpose of a community is to give people a place that they feel that they fit in and belong to, but it seems that eventually, we still feel the need to move on to something bigger and better, or just different.
According to Theodora Stites in, “Someone to Watch Over Me,” these beliefs were confirmed. (Stites 163) “I am constantly searching the Internet for new communities.” She is always looking for new communities to belong to. The need to connect with people that share the same interest is a huge part of her life. It’s something that she looks forward to everyday and she can’t get enough of it. (Stites, 165) She says, “I can’t wait to log back in.” She spends a lot of time communicating with the people in the communities that she becomes a part of, her “Friends’” is what she refers to them as.
It must be just human nature that has us always wanting more. Even when we finally find a community that we are content and happy with, we begin to get bored and we might even begin to look for flaws so we feel like we have an excuse for the need to get out and move on. In “Our Sprawling, Supersize Utopia,” David Brooks makes his beliefs clear and they support my own. (Brooks, 189) “What sort of longing causes people to pick up and head out to the horizon?” He also states, (Brooks, 189) “To grasp that longing, you have to take seriously the central cliché of American life: the American dream.” This is a fact for most people, we fantasize about living in the perfect place, having lots of friends, and having everything that we want and need within reach. We aren’t afraid to travel to somewhere unknown to find it, and we will search high and low until we do.
Our lives are constantly changing and moving as we grow, and we are just trying to keep up. After an interview with Cathy Williams, she was able to give me some insight from someone who is from and older age group and when asked, “Why the need to be a part of so many groups?” Cathy answered, “Well, I started out in one small mom’s group and when I was offered to join other groups that might interest me, I couldn’t resist. I just want to be a part of them. You know the need to belong to something.” It’s not something that we can help our interests are always going to change. It’s one of the many joys in life, the freedom to change our minds. Also when asked, “Do you ever drop out of any of the groups that you have joined?” she answered, “Unfortunately yes, I do get bored with some of them, and even though I like the people, I still feel the need to move on if they no longer interest me.”
The need to be a part of a community that we belong to is something that we will all experience in life, but the need for change is always stronger, and it causes us to move on and look for something new and exciting. Commitment to something or someplace can be hard and for some people it’s impossible. Everything around us is always changing and we have to adapt and change with it, causing our needs or interest to also change. There is nothing wrong with us for living this way, it’s the American dream, and life is too short to not follow the road where ever it might take you.
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