Community

I hate College Park. It's definitely the dirtiest, most disgusting place I have ever lived. I also happen to live there, obviously not by choice. The only reason I haven't up & moved is the same reason I moved here in the first place: college. But the mere fact that it's a college town is what repulses me most. The more I mature & grow up, the more repulsing everything is. The majority of people living in the area are 18-22 years old. Now that I'm 22, the majority are the same age or younger than I am.

I haven't made many friends in College Park because most of the people I meet aren't worth having friendships with. I'm not stuck up, I just don't care to spend time with 22 yr olds who call themselves best friends & talk about eachother behind their backs. I mean, it's been four years since highschool; please GROW UP.

In the last year, I've practically spent more time in every surrounding city than here in College Park. That's how much it repulses me. But I've realized something. It's much easier to keep up friendships when you see the friends more often. This happens more if you live near them. Your paths just have a greater chance of crossing.

While I've realized that already, I wasn't able to put it into practice because I wasn't making friends in the area. I tried, but "making friends" was the end goal. I put everything into clubs, activities, school groups, in an effort to make friends, but to no avail. Hence, why I kept hanging out with friends in Baltimore, DC, Virginia, MoCo, etc.

But I've finally broken through a wall. It's like an invisible wall that I'd been searching for and finally walked through- without knowing it at the time & without much direction. I just stumbled through it.

Basically, I prioritized what was most important in my life. Most important is graduating college & getting a dietetics internship. Second is having social life/support system. Once I cut out distractions, things started improving drastically. I cut out everything that was keeping me from reaching my ultimate goals- mostly people I relied too much on & activities that weren't healthy. I needed to stop relying on people so I could focus on my top two priorities.

Once I started focusing, I actually started to make friends. It's like that was the key I'd been missing. I finally chose just two things to focus on, ran to my goals with side blinders on, and friends came along with it.

At first it's lonely, cutting out everything. But putting 100% into what's most important to you has its own satisfaction. It also makes you more happy with yourself. I'm not really sure why friends result from this, but I guess chasing your passions will cause you to run into people who share them. So it really is true- the more you're involved with your community (not the next city, not the place you wish you lived, but YOUR neighborhood), the more it starts to become your home.

It's important to have a place you call home. I know, because I went 2 years without having one. Home, to me, means a place where you feel connected to other people. Where you run into friendly faces, where people are truly happy to see you, know your name, actually take a minute to stop and chat. These are the little things that give you a sense of belonging in a city. Having friends and being connected to other people allows you to share your successes and failures, enjoy activities, learn, and get farther in life than you would on your own. And I think that's what life's all about. To put it simply, people need people.

Being connected to your community is really what makes it your home. And I have finally found mine.