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We All Belong in the Same Box

My community tends to put people in different boxes. I find most people here to be very close minded, which results in a lot of people feeling like they don’t belong here.

What is a sense of belonging? The dictionary says that is “to have the proper qualifications, especially social qualifications, to be a member of a group.” That makes sense, right? Feeling that you’re part of a group, that you’re welcome somewhere. So, what happens when someone doesn’t feel part of anything?

It is sad to talk to people who cannot say openly that they have a different opinion of a traditional family or that they have different beliefs. They are afraid of how other people are going to react,because probably they’re not going to understand it. Because our community is pretty close minded, they tend to put people in different boxes apart from everyone else, which does not create a sense of belonging.

They think of people as the class clowns, the weirdos, the bullies, the nerds, strangers who don’t belong here because they are not like us. They are too blind to see that the only thing that they are creating is a hostile society for others. My community doesn’t understand that we are all the same and we should accept everyone and create bridges between us instead of building walls. Hopefully young people are starting to be more accepting and open-minded; that brings me hope, because sometime we all will be in the same box, as it should be.

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Alvaro Onieva is a 16-year-old from Coronel Oviedo, Paraguay. In his free time, he likes to solve Rubik's cubes, play the guitar, read books, and watch YouTube videos about different subjects like artwork, scientific explanations about discoveries, music soundtracks, and more.