Community

Every year, in the end of year assembly before our summer holidays the head of my school would say the same thing. He would talk for a long time about communities and what they were and how our school was. Every year I would ignore it. But recently, I've been thinking a lot about communities and today I realized that I've been thinking basically the same thing he told us every year, the same thing I ignored every year. If I could remember what he said I'd put it here but I can't, so I'm going to put it in my own words in an attempt to convey my meaning best I can.

I believe that we are all part of communities. We might not notice them, but we are. Anyone you are around daily, anyone you love and anyone you're stuck with are part of one of your communities. Your family, your school, your friends. They're all people you share your life with, they're part of your life whether you like it or not and I have come to believe that everyone who is part of your life is part of one of the communities you are in.

Communities can be close, they can be distant. Your friends are a close community, they're the people you have chosen to share your life with, so they are the most important. School is a community, it can be a distant one, it can be a close one. You might not like school, or half of the people you're at school with but it's still a community. You're sharing your lives together. You're not sharing a lot of your life with most but you;re still sharing something with them. I think that's what makes a group of people a community, shared experience. I consider my household a community, there may only be two of us but we are a unit, a community.

I grew up going to church. I am the only person my age who still goes to the same church I have been going to since I was about three. I consider that to be one of my communities. I have grown up with a lot of the adults there, most of them recognize me and know me but I'm not close to a lot of them. I'm grateful that I have this experience of growing up in a church, with adults who have been around me most of my life but I just wish there were more of them I'm close with. There's nothing I can do about who I grew up with and who I am close with as a result of that but I think it's the fact that I only grew up closely with a handful of them meant that I didn't appreciate it until now.

I'm watching other children grow up in my church and every week I wonder how many of them will still be there when they're my age. Most won't be. This makes me sad in a way, because they won't have the stability I had, they'll never know what it's like to grow up around people you see at church once a week. But they'll find their own communities, they might have big families, or lots of friends around them. Whatever, I think we'll all find communities that will make them who they become.

It all comes down to people. Everything is about the people in our lives. They make us who we are, they influence us the most.

“My most up-to-date philosophy is this:  Love. People.  Love them non-stop, no questions asked.  Love people, and fight for Gratitude and Forgiveness always.  The Truth is, sometimes you have to teach yourself to love and appreciate the greatest things in life... because you won’t always catch it at first glance”

- Julia Albain