Free Paper - Fostering Belonging: A Journey of Transformation and Inner Balance

The sense of belonging in an individual gives them a sense of fitting in a society or a particular group, for instance, a family or peers. Therefore, belonging gives someone a sense of acceptance as a part. As Linda grew up in a family of four, she struggled to find a sense of belonging, which clearly was lacking in her family. At some point, she became broken since she did not feel fulfilled like that of someone looking out for her whenever she was in trouble. She felt abandoned and disowned since no one made time out of their busy schedule to look out for her or even help take her assignments. An individual's means of upbringing has a great influence on their sense of belonging.

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Therefore, a sense of belonging is created and strongly established through the relationship. The matter of sense of belonging affected Linda in her performance in classwork and her extracurricular activities. She felt unfulfilled since no one seemed to care about whatever activity she took part in at school. While other parents cheered on their children during the various competitions, Linda was all by herself. The lack of belonging and affiliations towards her family made Linda rebellious to her parents and her elder brother since she believed she was all by herself, and no one cared. Progressively She identified that a sense of belonging gave an individual a sense of confidence and trust since they are certain that someone is watching their moves and correcting them whenever they are wrong. Therefore, the inner sense of balance of an individual is slowly accomplished due to them having a sense of belonging.

At school, a group of rascals bullied Linda because they knew that no one cared about her because she did not have a friend in her class. She cried each day and sometimes refused to go to school since she was frightened of what the rascals would do to her. One day as Linda was walking towards the school lawn to the bus, a seventh-grade student Bertha from her school, approached her. Bertha spoke softly to Linda and comforted her since the bully students had threatened to lock her in the girl's restroom the following school day. Linda was so scared to face them. Bertha vowed to protect Linda from the rascals. Bertha was the class monitor in the seventh grade and promised to report the rascals to the school's administration so that action could be taken against them. Bertha and Linda's friendship grew; Linda began to become confident about her actions was so no longer afraid at school and freely expressed her views.

As a result of Linda finding confidence in Bertha, her performance at school extracurricular activities improved. In her class, Linda became famous since most of the time represented her class in basketball at the school, local, and regional levels. Similarly, Linda's performance in class improved, and at the end of her 5th grade, she was among the top students in the class. This is a great symbol that we cannot belong to ourselves, and the inner sense of belonging balances the whole individual, as seen in Linda's case. Moreover, the choices that one makes could either build or destroy their sense of belonging. Nevertheless, at some point, we may encounter barriers in trying to find our sense of belonging.