Belonging

There is nothing quite 

like the feeling of belonging. 

To find the place where you fit. 

Without modifications. 

Without adjustments. 

It is not as rare as life 

would have you believe. 

We all spend 

a great deal of our lives 

trying to fit in. 

To be part of the in crowd 

or the out crowd, 

whichever it may be. 

We wear the right clothes. 

We eat the right foods. 

We frequent the right places. 

We adapt. 

We change. 

We suppress. 

We do it all 

to sit at the popular kids table. 

It began in elementary school 

and follows us throughout our lives. 

The desire for companionship 

is inherent within us all. 

We spend our days in places 

we have convinced ourselves 

that we belong. 

But, late at night, 

when darkness rules, 

and the shadows run long, 

we feel it. 

It is the undeniable truth 

that sometimes we don’t belong. 

And perhaps that is not a failure. 

Perhaps belonging 

was never meant to be earned 

through performance. 

Perhaps those places 

that require our constant adjustment 

were never home to begin with. 

Real belonging asks for no costume. 

It does not demand our silence. 

It does not require us 

to become less of ourselves 

to make others comfortable. 

It simply opens the door and says, 

“You can come in exactly as you are.” 

So, be quirky 

be weird

be the odd duck 

Where you belong 

is looking for you too 

Those places exist. 

That person exists. 

Those people exist.

© Ron Simpson Jr. 

October 1, 2026