In “Missing Your People,” Tracy Brower explains the importance of belonging. Describe a time when you felt like you truly belonged. What created that feeling?

 yo hi :)

Prompt Reponse
I sat in on a session one day with Atlanta-based interdisciplinary rapper-producer Dizzy Wright and a couple other award-winning musicians and music workers about a year back, and I gotta say, that's a time when I felt like I truly belonged. I felt like I was understood and my passions and drive weren't just seen as a hobby. They were seen as a legitimate repertoire of my abilities and what I was capable of. Dizzy told me how much I reminded him of himself during his early years. Having that drive to create despite practically everyone telling me to quit and to do something productive. We had a long conversation about philosophy and the mind of an artist. It felt like I was truly understood for who I was, not who people saw me as. It makes sense, he lived through the same struggles every artist faces when they are passionate about their craft. Sadly, I never got his contact or the other contacts of the people also sitting in that session. But, the experience still lives in my head as me being to connect with these people high up in the industry and to put myself in position among these people really made me feel heard for once.

Summary
Today, we read and answered some questions about the piece "Missing Your People" by Tracy Brower.

Reflection
It's a cool piece about belonging and its consequences, how closely our need for social connection are connected to parts of the brain like physical pain really stood out to me since the anecdotal evidence of everyone's lives really demonstrate that. The feeling of hurting feeling so close to feeling left out or excluded and etc. It was an interesting read.