Giselle Peña

Giselle Peña talks about how belonging and not belonging feel.

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Transcript

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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
 up, earthlings? I'm Leah Velez
 
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 and I'll be your host. The stories
 that follow our raw footage. So let's
 
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 open up out your nuggets and give
 these community submitted stories listen.
 
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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.