Quotes About Belonging

I love books about freaks, because I am one. You might be, too. Let's be freaks together?

I am here because of love.

Since I'm not part of it yet, I see it: how a group of people can become a blizzard, how all the tie spent buying and picking out exactly the right clothes doesn't mean shit now because nobody is looking at clothes or poses.

You are not alone.

But none of that really mattered. I had found my tribe. It felt like a family reunion for the family I'd never really known, a homecoming at the place where I was always meant to be but hadn't known how to find.

It's the secret smile you get from knowing that, somewhere, there is someone who is yours. Not in the sense that you own her, or control her. She is yours because you say anything to her whenever you need to. And she can do the same, whenever she needs to. Most of the time this isn't necessary. But the secret smile comes from knowing it's available, even when she's half a world away.

If act one in life is about finding yourself, then act two is about finding everyone else.

We spend most of the day together at school, but not in a way that limits our interactions with other people. If anything, we incorporate our friends into what we have between us. We exist as individuals. We exist as a pair. We exist as parts of trios, quartets, and so on. And it all feels right.

But none of that really mattered. I had found my tribe. It felt like a family reunion for the family I'd never really known, a homecoming at the place where I was always meant to be nut hadn't known how to find.

So many of us had to leave. But every single one of us wishes we hadn't had to. Every single one of us wishes our family had acted like our family, that even when we found a new family, we hadn't had to leave the other one behind. Every single one of us would have loved to have been loved unconditionally by our parents. Don't make him leave you, we want to tell Mrs. Kim. He doesn't want to leave you.

In a field, I am the absence of field. In a crowd, I am the absence of crowd. In a dream, I am the absence of dream. But I don't want to live as an absence. I move to keep things whole.

these things let us know how we fit with each other, even if we aren't sure how we fit with everybody else

I feel like the mutant among the mutants. Like the boy who showed up at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and found out that, whoops, he didn't have any superpowers at all. I'm so tired of being uncool. You can dress me up, give me a cool boyfriend, even laugh at one of my jokes every now and then — but the anxiety always gives it away.

crave, v.: Nothing makes me feel as welcome in the world as the sound of you laughing at a joke I've made.

The beliefs are almost always the same; it's just that the histories are different. Everybody wants to believe in a higher power. Everybody wants to belong to something bigger than themselves, and everybody wants company in doing that. They want there to be a force of good on earth, and they want an incentive to be a part of that force. They want to be able to prove their belief and their belonging, through rituals and devotion. They want to touch the enormity.

The beliefs are almost always the same; it's just that the histories are different. Everybody wants to believe in a higher power. Everybody wants to belong to something bigger than themselves, and everybody wants company in doing that.

Belonging. Togetherness. These words are as complicated and confusing as the word love. It's probably all the same thing. Or it would be if we let it be.

I love being with you and Joni and the rest of the group. I love being a part of that. But I can never really enjoy it, because I know that at the end, I'll be back here. Sometimes I can forget, and when I can forget, it's bliss. But this past week has been hell. It's like I've been pushed back into the shape of this person I used to be. And I don't fit into the old shape anymore. I don't fit.

When I'm with you, I belong. It just naturally felt like that.

It's good to have each other, but you also need to have your own people, your own experiences.

It's the secret smile you get from knowing that,somewhere,there is someone who is yours. Not in the sense that you own her or control her. She is yours because you say anything to her,whenever you need to. And she can do the same,whenever she needs to. Most of the time this is not necessary. But the secret smile comes from knowing it's available,even when she's half a world away.

suffuse , v. I don't like it when you use my shampoo, because then your hair smells like me, not you.

More than anything else, we want to fit into our own families.

And love. I am here because of love.