Try to Understand

“What groups are you a part of? Who is your tribe?” someone once asked me. 

I had to think about it. I’d never consciously considered the idea before, and I’m just now realizing that it’s because I took the communities I’m part of for granted. 

I’m not part of many, but they are more than enough to keep me content. Family, school friends, castmates. But for all the time I failed to acknowledge my own wealth of community, I also failed to register the fact that there are people who have none. 

What would it be like to be alone in a world full of people? To be an outsider in a foreign land? I ask myself. Part of being a writer is having enough imagination and empathy to put yourself in anyone’s shoes, but sometimes you have to experience something yourself in order to completely immerse yourself in another’s story. For without experiences there is no such thing as imagination. 

I may not understand now, and I may never have the opportunity to know how the community-less truly feel, but I can try. Not to be community-less, but to learn from others. To listen to their lives and see their stories. And maybe if I have even a little more of an understanding than I did before, I can try to help. To support people. To be there for them. For whoever needs a friend.