- Reflections
My take on True Belonging
As a Korean Adoptee, I struggled with this question. At three and a half years, I was adopted by my german parents from South Korea and raised in a conservative, predominantly white town in South Germany. I felt trapped searching for a sense of belonging, not knowing my birth mother, roots, and origin culture. I felt ‘in-between’ and a victim of my own, my families, and other people’s expectations, and having to decide to sit in one chair or the other.
I felt ashamed of not being entirely comfortable in either. Releasing that shame, facing my discomfort, and so many other complex emotions was so liberating. It opened the gate to discover me beyond my adoptee self and to find True Belonging within.
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What True Belonging means to me
I found True Belonging in an unexpected place—within myself.
This is my key and starting point to find belonging anywhere and with the people, I love and deeply care about, and vice versa.
It has been an intense but insightful and rewarding journey of self-discovery. I have learned that True Belonging is not limited to culture or family belonging. It is about our partnerships, friendships, work, personal values, passions, spirituality, vocation… It is about our relationship with ourselves.⠀
What do I mean by finding True Belonging within myself?⠀
➻ I own my story. I accept its light, as well as its shadow. ⠀
➻ I embrace my adoptee self as part of my other-selves.⠀
➻ I love and take good care of myself.
➻ I turn my struggles into strengths.
➻ I feel free.
➻ I rust my journey to continue and unfold in a nurturing way.⠀
What does it mean to you? Have you started your journey yet?