“Belonging” by Rosemary Wahtola Trommer
And if it’s true we are alone,
we are alone together,
the way blades of grass
are alone, but exist as a field.
Sometimes I feel it,
the green fuse that ignites us,
the wild thrum that unites us,
an inner hum that reminds us
of our shared humanity.
Just as thirty-five trillion
red blood cells join in one body
to become one blood.
Just as one hundred thirty-six thousand
notes make up one symphony.
Alone as we are, our small voices
weave into the one big conversation.
Our actions are essential
to the one infinite story of what it is
to be alive. When we feel alone,
we belong to the grand communion
of those who sometimes feel alone—
we are the dust, the dust that hopes,
a rising of dust, a thrill of dust,
the dust that dances in the light
with all other dust, the dust
that makes the world.
- To belong to yourself, which requires knowing yourself and giving yourself room to disagree with yourself.
- To belong to others in a way that requires you to consider their penchants and perspectives.
- To belong to a place, such as home, even when home is gone and you are displaced.
- To belong to a world that sometimes doesn’t seem to know you or even want you.
As you face the future – the uncertain and beautiful blank canvas that is whatever it is that you and we and the billions of others together create, please know that you do belong. You belong just as much as absolutely anyone else.
Without you being you, the world and those of us in it cannot truly fulfill our collective purpose.
Your many facets shed light on all of us. So, be fully you. Wholly you. Growing you. And give others the space and grace to be who they are, too.
I have loved being your principal for the past seven years – growing alongside you, taking COVID tests alongside you, counting grains of salt alongside you in Advanced Math, singing the Lost and Found Song alongside you. Not running in the Quad alongside you, because I have boundaries. And bad knees. But being with you as you learn who you are, and as you support your friends on their journeys of belonging.
Please know that you are important. You are loved. And soon, in about 28 hours and 17 minutes, you are sixth graders!
(Lord have mercy upon us!)
Congratulations, Monarchs!
May all your flights be supported by the wind.
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