Belonging

When I set out to get my PhD, I had never wanted to become a professor. My heart was in the community doing nonprofit work, and I fully intended to return to that world after graduation. Yet, when an opportunity presented itself to remain in academia with my fabulous mentor, I took it. But a few years later, I realized I needed to change what I was doing in order to be true to myself. My mind found academia stimulating, but my heart was woven into the fibers of a nonprofit that had defined my career.

When I got a job at (un)said nonprofit, I knew it was going to be amazing. Finally, I was returning to my people, my world: social justice and community work. Despite my wonderful professor colleagues, I wasn’t going to feel like such a misfit anymore in the ivory tower. I felt like I was finally coming home. I never could have predicted it would be the absolute worst year of my life.

It was awful for many reasons, in part due to the gap between expectation and reality. It was also painful because I had felt so connected to the people and the organization already, yet I realized that I had to keep proving myself over and over again. I was never enough. Couldn’t ever say something just the right way. Couldn’t meet with enough people or send enough emails. Over weeks and months, it began to feel impossible. I began to question myself – was I really the issue?

I don’t know what the word is to describe the icy realization that you are not/no longer/never have been part of a community of which you thought you belonged. Like having someone tell you that gravity is a social construction or that your family packed up and moved away without you. A feeling of being ungrounded, untethered, and somehow not at all free.  

The power of community is incredible. Maybe we only fully realize that power when it is gone.

It’s not that I was lonely or that I didn’t have other supportive people around me. In fact, I made some very good friends at work – in particular, two women who are still some of my closest friends now. It’s rarely about the individual people. It’s about a collective vibe that tells you if you are welcome or not. If it is safe for you to be yourself. The “community” difference is the piece about not needing to know a group of people in order to feel a sense of belonging and connection. To not have an underlying sense that you are being judged to determine whether you fit or not.

This is kind of a strange example, but work with me on this one: I love cemeteries, particularly Jewish ones. I feel connected to the Jewish people buried there. It reminds me always that I am part of a People; not just another person among all other people.

It's small things that make me feel the connection -- things like how Jews leave a stone to mark when we have visited someone's grave. A pile of rocks on a headstone are so meaningful. It's our way of saying, "I am here. You have not been forgotten."  

Many headstones have people's full Hebrew names on them. Your full Hebrew name is your own name in Hebrew + “daughter/son of” + your parents' names in Hebrew. Hebrew names are really important. It's your Jewish identity.... your Jewish essence. It ties you to your history.

Hearing my full Hebrew name echoes something so deep inside of me... it is one of those space and time connections. Like when I light candles on Shabbat and say the same prayer spoken by women throughout history and women across the country right now and women in the future... It is being pinned to the map of my own existence, but not just my map... more like the collective conscious map of Jewish people.

It is belonging in the deepest sense of the word.

I think that we weather transitions best when we know we belong somewhere. At least while everything else is up in the air, we have a known safe place to be ourselves.

I realized this especially during the first choir rehearsal I attended last month. Never have I been so quickly welcomed or accepted by a group of people. No needing to prove myself, no hazing (yet!), no suspicious questions or side eyes. Just welcoming with open arms, lots of smiles, and lots of laughter.   

In the middle of rehearsal last week, I stopped to think about how grateful I am to be a part of such a supportive community – even of people that I don’t know very well! I actually got a little teary and couldn’t sing for a few minutes.

And though I had only worked with these people for a mere five hours ever, it felt an awful lot like… home.

 
Freedom while grounded and tethered.
A rekindling of connection to smooth the passaggio.