Giselle Peña talks about how belonging and not belonging feel.
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You're listening to StoryHelix, intertwining
stories past, present and not yet imagined
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in Lane County, Oregon. What's
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I think belonging feels like a warm sense, uh,
kind of a comforting sense, like you
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aren't being pushed out or pulled in, you're just there. The moment I
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felt I belonged was probably, I
would say it's it was in this classroom
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and also just kind of because this
classroom has felt like a safe space so
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far and I really enjoyed like talking
and having this these type of conversations and
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like the things that we're learning right
now. I think it are really interesting
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and important. I think the people
are they're all from different backgrounds, they
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all have interesting stories or interesting things
to say, and I think I've also
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been pushed out of my comfort zone
to talk more or to kind of be
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open about my ideas and share them
as well. But very specific moment when
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I felt that way, and I
think that was like in 2016, which
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was during like the whole border wall
dispute, which is still going on.
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I think I felt the most like
I didn't belong at all, like anywhere,
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because of there were so many things
on one side and so many things
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and not other side, people supporting
it, people not supporting it, and
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I've always felt like I was in
the middle of that conversation because I was
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someone that was born here with parents
that were born somewhere completely else that I've
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only been to once. So I
think during that time in school and just
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anywhere, I felt like I felt
really weird, like I didn't belong,
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like I wasn't allowed to go here
there or stuff like that, which was
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a very odd feeling to have.
I think it's not a place that has
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usually, I mean there's people in
it, but there's nobody like that lives.
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I'm sure there's people that live there, but kind of like going to
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parks and stuff, I felt belonging
only because it's very calm. It can
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be kind of a reassuring place.
It also has my favorite things, which
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is like nature and animals and all
that, and I really enjoy parks.
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I feel very belonged there. I
think in some cases it still feels I
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don't belong. In some cases I
will like notice the way people look at
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me or maybe how they perceive me, like with friends. I've had this
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like one the thing happened where I
felt like I didn't dig into it,
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but it just felt like because me
and my friends went to a store and
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we were like speaking Spanish a lot
and then somebody, like a store person,
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was kept kind of watching us and
looking at us, and I don't
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know if my friend pointed out and
I was like, I didn't really notice
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that, or you know, it's
just or incidents. That happened with my
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mom, I think, because her
her accent is very thick and sometimes like
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she doesn't know English that well or
doesn't like she talks, but it's hard.
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So I think back on those type
of things and I'm like, okay,
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yeah, I still feel kind of
weird about going to places, but
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I think it's it's changed. I
hope it changes more, you know,
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for the better, of course.
Thanks for listening. You can find us
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wherever you listen to your podcasts.
If you've got your own Lane County story
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to tell, we'd love to hear
it at StoryHelix Dot WordCrafters dot org.
