Quotes About Belonging

And in terms of identity, surely one could argue versions of such a crisis have been with us for a very long time. There is nothing new in exile. It is as ancient as the notion of home.

But I've always been a sucker for a good double entendre; the gap between what is said and what is thought, what is stated and what is implied, is a place in which I have always found myself. I'm really not a liar, I just learned very early on that those of us deprived of history sometimes need to turn to mythology to feel complete, to belong.(p10)

The soldier had stamped my passport FAMILY in heavy black capital letters and I checked it now for reassurance and because I liked how fierce the word looked

La idea de no tener una lengua materna me preocupa. ¿Es como sentirte un nómada dentro de tu propia cabeza? no me puedo imaginar no tener palabras en las que refugiarme. Ser huérfana de lengua.

Home to them was wherever he was.

After a certain age, you felt a need not to be alone. It grew stronger, like a radio frequency, until finally it was so powerful that you were forced to do something about it.

The world is so enormous, but if you have places where they know what you like to drink, then all is well.

Nor is it simply the small socialist gatherings Joe attends, though he hates to be a joiner, can't stand to be part of a group, even for a cause he believes in like this one, sitting earnest and cross-legged on someone's mildewed carpet and just listening, just taking information in, not offering anything of his own.

Families were like individual, discrete, moated island nations. The little group of citizens on the slab of rock gathered together instinctively, almost defensively, and everyone who was outside the walls—even if you'd once been best friends—was now just that, outsiders.

Maybe it'll be legal to marry places one day. And if so, then I will marry this one.

it was always slightly off when everyone was in a couple except for one person. the entire group tended to single that person out, as if to try and make him feel better in his aloneness, as though it were an unnatural state.

You really only learn your place, her mother once said, when you're left in it.

You really only learn your place, her mother once said, when you're left in it.

Remember who you are, May." The balm of my mother's oft-repeated words and the softness of memory banished my unease. I flew down the stairs to the party.

I'm still trying to figure out where you belong." "What is there to wonder about? I'm one of the Sporting set. You said it yourself.

If there was a family in the world to which I did not belong, it was my own.

Sometimes I think I'll never really belong anywhere, or trust anyone. I think I need to learn how to stop caring about that." "You can't decide not to care," Sean said. "You can only control your response." "Is that really possible?" I asked. "It really is," he said. "It even starts to get a little bit easier." "Really?" My voice sounded like a stranger's. "When?

I love you," I told him. "And all of this, our life, is everything I wished to have but wasn't sure I could keep. I never felt like that with Alex, James. I always knew that what we shared wouldn't last. He never belonged to me. Not the way you do.

I may feel like a social outcast but im not really one. I think im an outcast inasmuch as I want to be left alone by people I cant stand which isn't really the same thing as true social ostracization now is it?

We just want to be where we're supposed to be. We just want to be with the people we want to be with. I don't think that's asking for too much, ya know what I'm saying?

I MAY FEEL LIKE A SOCIAL OUTCAST BUT IM NOT REALLY ONE TARYN NOW SHE'S A SOCIAL OUTCAST BUT IM NOT REALLY ONE TARYN NOW SHE'S A SOCIAL OUTCAST I THINK IM AN OUTCAST INASMUCH AS I WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE BY PEOPLE I CAN'T STAND WHICH ISNT REALLY THE SAME THING AS TRUE SOCIAL OSTRACIZATION NOW IS IT?

As we kissed, it was as if I were returning to somewhere safe. We kissed, and it was like coming home after a long, grueling odyssey. Marcus and I kissed, and kissed, and kissed, and I never wanted to leave this familiar place again.

We are the way we're supposed to be.

You can't fight tribalism with a tribe. All you can do is read and think and listen. And if you're lucky, eventually will come that rousing, fleeting moment when you hear someone say the thing that makes you feel less alone.