Quotes About Belonging

When I was a teenager in Georgia I always felt like the odd one. I never felt like I fit in.

I thought I was an odd person, and since my hometown had only about 70,000 people in it, I knew I was going to have to leave there and go out and find other odd people.

I'm Scottish first, and it's odd to hear that I'm a Scottish-American.

It's strange; when I was younger and people would ask, 'Where are you from?', I'd say, 'West Africa', which was odd because I'm obviously not African, but it was my home.

When I was at school, you had to choose; there was a lot of pressure to assimilate. You were an Aussie, or you were one of 'the wogs' - which was everybody else. But I didn't want to be in either group, so I felt like an odd one out.

I'm the little half-black, half-Jewish girl who was odd and awkward. I try to be myself.

I was embarrassed about modeling. When you're at school and you're modeling, it sounds very glamorous, but I didn't want to do things that no one else was doing. I didn't want to be the odd one out. I wanted to be part of the gang.

I didn't fit in on my football team; I was always the odd one out.

In chess, everyone's accepted. That's what's great about it. You can be a little bit different. You can be an oddball.

I come from the most normal family. I've always been the oddball.

My church's antics were such that we were constantly at odds with the world. That reinforced our 'otherness' on a daily basis.

I'm not super-easily offended, but it's a problem when someone's making you feel different or separate because of your race.

It feels great, definitely feels great to have your number called and be a part of the offense.

If nature offers no home, then we must make a home one way or another. The only question is how.

Oh, how hard it must be to die anywhere but in one's birthplace.

I didn't feel ready to leave home, because it went from no freedom to all freedom. And I was like, 'Oh, my God, I don't know what I'm doing in college.' There seemed to be no like-minded people where I was... I didn't have a clan. I didn't have a choir... There was no safety net.

When I watched The Outs,' I was like, 'Oh my god, this is just such a great, grounded, lived-in story about people my age living where I happen to live.'

I'm from Cleveland, Ohio. I was the only black girl in my grade. And I was just, like, really dorky. Like, I wasn't cool.

Ohio is my home, always. I'm a homegirl. Ohio is my home. Ohio is my first love.

Unless you're from Cleveland, northeast Ohio, you really don't understand. It's a sense of pride that we have. You just kind of root for the teams in that area.

I still have my Levi's jacket that I bought on the Portobello Road when I was 14, and it's like part of me, you know, it's got oils in it, and it's my comfort, security blanket or something.

I think it was like, 'I don't look like you, Mom. I don't look like you, Dad. Like, what's going on here?' They just kind of told me I was adopted. I was like, 'OK, that's fine with me.'

I just had this New York thing. When I got there, I felt so at home. I said, 'This is where the crazy people go.' It's OK to be yourself in New York. In L.A., it's difficult.

I would find myself backing away from all of the 'isms', all of the communities. I have always been able to be misused by every community But that is OK. I would rather be misused than neglected.