I am a very busy person and I have many facets to my busy life. Because of all the things that I have going on in my life, I have several groups or communities that I am part of. I am a student, I am a parent, I work at several places, I sell Pure Romance and have a 'family' there, I am into Alternative Medicine and have a group that I belong to for that, as well as other various interests. I do not feel a total sense of belonging to any of these groups but there are some which I feel a greater sense of belonging.
One of the communities to which I feel the greatest sense of belonging is the school that my children attend, it is a charter school and what it focuses the most on is creating a sense of community within the school. My oldest child started attending the year they first opened and unfortunately will need to go elsewhere this coming year because it only goes up to 6th grade and he will be in 7th. In a charter school parents must usually drop off their kids, there are not school buses to bus the children. This generally means that most of the parents with children in charter schools like to stay involved in the lives of their kids, that is not always the case, but it tends to be true a large majority of the time. Their school plans many activities both during school hours and after hours so that the children and families of the children can get to know each other and bond.
When my oldest son started going to the school in 1st grade I attended a few events and started getting to know people, when my twins started school 3 years later, I became much more involved. Since that time I have become very involved and have become close to many of the families with students there. I have also become close to quite a few of the students due to the fact that I volunteer for many events and spend a lot of time at the school every week during the school year. It seems that once involved with this school it is possible to be a part of it. I still keep in contact with several moms who no longer have children who attend there and they sometimes attend events for the school that occur after-hours. There are not many times when I do not feel part of the community, even in the summer they try to organize something monthly to keep the sense of community flowing. The values for this community revolve around what is best for our kids, we want them to experience the best childhood possible and we try to help others involved with their children as well. Although being involved in this community is not help me identify with who I am, trying to do what is best for my children is a huge part of who I am.
The second community that I am involved in is one that is just for me and does not involve my kids. It is one that I discovered I was part of while attending a spiritual growth retreat last September. When I signed up I knew only the woman taking us, I did drive up with someone and we were able to get to know each other and discover a mutual friend that we both had who has since moved out of state. As with most retreats I imagine, you get to know a lot about someone pretty quickly while you are on them. There were 12 of us all together and we discovered a lot about each other and certain ones of us bonded more to some than others. We experienced a lot of emotional challenges during that retreat and needed to lean on each other for support. We spent 4 whole days together and all exchanged numbers and emails at the end. We did have one meeting about 1-1/2 months later. Most of us are on Facebook and have met several times since that last meeting. I discovered that I was part of the group by the end of our first day together and I don't think that it is possible to really leave a group like that, no matter how much time passes we still associate each other with what we went through. I will be going again this year but not everyone from last year will be there and I am sure there will be other new people who I do not yet know. The values and beliefs of this group are to accept each other and others for who they are, not to judge and try to change. As with all the other communities that I am in, I do not require this community to feel that I am whole.
From all the communities that I am involved in I believe that a community should have members who share at least one common goal or belief and work together toward that goal. I also think that those within the community should try to make those inside or joining, feel welcome and try to find a way to communicate with each other.
One of the communities to which I feel the greatest sense of belonging is the school that my children attend, it is a charter school and what it focuses the most on is creating a sense of community within the school. My oldest child started attending the year they first opened and unfortunately will need to go elsewhere this coming year because it only goes up to 6th grade and he will be in 7th. In a charter school parents must usually drop off their kids, there are not school buses to bus the children. This generally means that most of the parents with children in charter schools like to stay involved in the lives of their kids, that is not always the case, but it tends to be true a large majority of the time. Their school plans many activities both during school hours and after hours so that the children and families of the children can get to know each other and bond.
When my oldest son started going to the school in 1st grade I attended a few events and started getting to know people, when my twins started school 3 years later, I became much more involved. Since that time I have become very involved and have become close to many of the families with students there. I have also become close to quite a few of the students due to the fact that I volunteer for many events and spend a lot of time at the school every week during the school year. It seems that once involved with this school it is possible to be a part of it. I still keep in contact with several moms who no longer have children who attend there and they sometimes attend events for the school that occur after-hours. There are not many times when I do not feel part of the community, even in the summer they try to organize something monthly to keep the sense of community flowing. The values for this community revolve around what is best for our kids, we want them to experience the best childhood possible and we try to help others involved with their children as well. Although being involved in this community is not help me identify with who I am, trying to do what is best for my children is a huge part of who I am.
The second community that I am involved in is one that is just for me and does not involve my kids. It is one that I discovered I was part of while attending a spiritual growth retreat last September. When I signed up I knew only the woman taking us, I did drive up with someone and we were able to get to know each other and discover a mutual friend that we both had who has since moved out of state. As with most retreats I imagine, you get to know a lot about someone pretty quickly while you are on them. There were 12 of us all together and we discovered a lot about each other and certain ones of us bonded more to some than others. We experienced a lot of emotional challenges during that retreat and needed to lean on each other for support. We spent 4 whole days together and all exchanged numbers and emails at the end. We did have one meeting about 1-1/2 months later. Most of us are on Facebook and have met several times since that last meeting. I discovered that I was part of the group by the end of our first day together and I don't think that it is possible to really leave a group like that, no matter how much time passes we still associate each other with what we went through. I will be going again this year but not everyone from last year will be there and I am sure there will be other new people who I do not yet know. The values and beliefs of this group are to accept each other and others for who they are, not to judge and try to change. As with all the other communities that I am in, I do not require this community to feel that I am whole.
From all the communities that I am involved in I believe that a community should have members who share at least one common goal or belief and work together toward that goal. I also think that those within the community should try to make those inside or joining, feel welcome and try to find a way to communicate with each other.
