Belonging Isn't Fitting In

You know, I think the first thing that comes to mind for me with belonging is just acceptance, right? And that acceptance has to begin within yourself. You have to try to accept who you are. You can't spend all this time trying to correct the little kid that's inside of you, you know? Like, I definitely have this weird little kid that was just screaming for attention growing up, and I, I tried to hide her. And I think when I moved out here, I learned that I needed to accept that part of me as well and kind of just let that part of me explore and do what it needed to do too, because accepting yourself allows other people and the communities that you want to belong in to accept you.