Quotes About Belonging

This is the city that kind of formulated who I am. And, not only that, but to be black in Atlanta is one of the greatest things because you can go anywhere and feel familiar with anyone who's right next to you, from Bankhead to Buckhead.

For me, working on the sets with Mani Ratnam is so familiar. It is the place where I grew up, so I am not nervous here.

It's always good to feel the love from the fans and see familiar faces.

Somebody, just because they are black, too, or just because they are trans, too, or just because they're gay and recognize I'm trans, does that mean you have the familiarity to use certain language? And I don't mean with just me but with the community.

When you have parents that come from a country that you weren't raised in, you feel this weird sense of familiarity, like you've returned to something.

I was born in Luton, I grew up in Luton, and all my family and friends are still there. Luton is home for me.

I don't have that many family and friends.

I see myself as a citizen of the planet. Even as a child, I always found it mindless to root for your own team. I was puzzled by the fact that people said their own team was better than other teams simply because it was theirs.

I was complexed and awkward that I was good for nothing and was always lying. I would lie to my school friends that I was a stud in my colony and to my colony friends that I was a stud in the school cricket and football teams, though I was in no team.

I was heavily into sport from 10 to 15, I was in all the teams, and it was everything to me. But I was very young for my school year and when puberty kicked in for my classmates I got left behind.

I still think of myself as a Philadelphian. I still root for the Philadelphia teams. Other than my house, I still feel most at home in terms of cities when I'm in Philly.

In the teams I've been at, I've been really well received.

When I was flying to Rome, we flew over London; I felt like bursting into tears. It's part of me, so I can't leave London behind for good.

Tears belong within the family.

I feel like a foster kid that's been in the system for a long time, and then at 16, somebody adopted them and said, 'You can go to college, and you ain't got to pay no student loans.' I feel happy. I feel accepted after all these years of blood, sweat, and tears.

When you're a kid growing up, and you think you're gay, you know that you're different; you're often teased and it can really destroy your self-esteem. But sports can be great for building self-esteem.

My mother is American. I first went to school in America, and we came back when I was about six to rural Norfolk. In primary school, I was teased immediately and mercilessly. I probably dropped that accent within about 10 days.

Sure, sometimes I get teased for being the guy who likes everything, but I don't think of myself as someone apart from this world.

Having seen TED from a distance, I always thought if ever there was a place for someone like me, the outcasts, people who maintained who they are despite being told what they were, it was TED.

I wanted to be with the kind of people I'd grown up with, but you can't go back to them and be one of them again, no matter how hard you try.

I just felt being part of my peer group so strongly. I was immersed in teen culture, but not taken in by it.

As a white teen, I was very drawn to hip-hop culture, almost to the point of disappearing in it - there was a sense of having no sense of authenticity except this one that wasn't mine.

There was so much pressure to fit in, I tried to force myself to be like everyone else. The last thing any teen wants is to be 'uncool.'

It's so easy as a teen to feel like everybody is having this normal experience - except you. You're on the outside.