Belonging and Finding Place

Abstract

Belonging is a complicated dance of giving and receiving. To belong is not only to be welcomed but also to feel that we have something to contribute. To belong is to find connection, to leave our mark and to be understood and valued for our unique contributions. Like the house and hill, connectedness to people or a place or an institution is enriched when all parties are critical to the making of that relationship. When first-generation (FG) students were interviewed about how they came to belong in college, they were acutely aware of occasions when they were welcomed but not on their own terms. They were adroit at distinguishing between when they had established authentic connections with peers and when they were pretending to fit in. They were aware that belonging can be elusive, just as when we shift our place of residence or leave our familiar hill, we must start again to try to find home.

No house should ever be on a hill or on anything. It should be of the hill. Belonging to it. Hill and house should live together each the happier for the other.

—Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect