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Feeling a sense of belonging is something I’ve struggled with for as long as I can remember. Sure, I had friends before college, but I never really felt like I was a part of a community until recently. It didn’t really hit me until the pandemic, when I realized, “shit, I feel so lonely.” At the very beginning of college, I was upset because I thought it would be 4 years of more loneliness. Now here I am at the end of college, upset because I now have to be over 1,000 miles from my friends and the community that I found here. I feel so incredibly grateful to all the wonderful people I’ve met, the friends I’ve made, and the times I’ve shared with them while here. I finally felt like I belonged somewhere, and I can’t recommend that feeling enough. It’s a beautiful feeling to have. Now I have to leave that feeling behind and wonder when I’m going to feel it again. And even when I do feel it again, I know it won’t feel the same. I bring all of this up because I’ve seen exactly 130 new movies in theaters since starting college. During my graduation ceremony yesterday, a speech from one of my favorites of those 130 kept replaying in my head: “Wherever you go from here, you have to promise to take care of that little boy for me. Make sure he never forgets where he came from. And he never doubts that he’s loved. And he never lets anyone at those big, fancy places he’s gonna be in, tell him that he doesn’t belong there.” I initially thought of this speech in the context of myself and my struggles with loneliness and lack of belonging, but I want to say it to all of you as well (especially my fellow graduates): remember you are loved, don’t doubt for a second that you will find your people, and do not let anyone tell you that you don’t belong, even your own crippling self-doubt. The next time that devil on your shoulder tries to tell you otherwise, just remember that a doofus from Texas who rage-baits people with 67 jokes and got hit by a car like an idiot was able to do it, so there’s no way you can’t do it. Just keep going, stay rad, and keep on living
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