It will

 A feeling of belonging. Would you say you feel that way? If so, what is it that you belong to? That's a difficult question to give an answer too. Is it belonging to a family, a community, a country or the entire world? Where do you belong? Some of us feel like wherever we are at the moment is where we belong, while others spend a lifetime looking. 

 When we are in school, we belong there, that's how the majority feel. Call it school spirit if you like, but it is a feeling of belonging. In that school there are groups and subgroups that belong. What group did you belong to? What clique? Today we are focused on including everyone into our little cliques, being inclusive. It's the in thing. I remember a time when we called those folks, tokens. You know the ones that were included to show others how inclusive we are. The reality was it was a "token" a free pass to be seen with the cool kids. Each group thought of themselves as the "real" cool kids, the others were phony. Those without a feeling of belonging would gravitate towards that, or be totally repulsed. There will always be the loners. Today especially we are being told to be wary of the loners, they could be trouble. I didn't go to college, but I expect it is much the same way.

 I did join the Navy and there was that sense of belonging, although it wasn't always shared. I didn't embrace the whole culture are readily as some others. Did I belong there? I don't know, it is where I went, what I did for twenty years. I have some good memories of those days, a few stories to tell, and enjoy the entitlements I earned as a result of that time. After my initial enlistment period, I reenlisted, I was then identified as a lifer. That's what you call those making a career out of the military. A career being twenty or more years. Hardly a lifetime, unless of course you are 18, or in your early twenties. Moved from place to place during that lifetime the final stop being at The Naval Academy, as a security guard, a policeman. A job as foreign to me as anything I could imagine. I did the job as best as I could, but definitely didn't feel like I belonged there.

 I settled in Greensboro, Maryland a town of about 2000 people. Small town America. I love the area but I'm not home. I don't have a sense of belonging here. It's an agricultural area, farmers whose families have been here for generations. I'm no farmer and I've only been here about thirty years. Yes, I'm the foreigner that lives down the street. Now, my son, he belongs here. He wasn't born here but came here while he was still in elementary school. Today he is serving a second term as Mayor. Yes, he belongs and has cemented that place in the town record books. I can say, he feels like he is home.

 I'm one of those looking. It isn't a bad thing, not a feeling of remorse or anything like that. It doesn't cause anxiety or depression; it is simply an awareness. At times I feel like I was born in the wrong time, that I should have existed earlier. I expect many of us feel that way though, especially looking at the way things are today. We call it being nostalgic, but it is more a seeking of comfort than anything else. Still, I understand this could be exactly where I belong. I do believe in destiny. I get to choose the path I take to reach that destiny, but I don't get to choose the destination. I will end up where I belong, all it takes is patience. I just can't help looking ahead though, I'm restless, which is strange for me. I've never thought of myself as anyone in a hurry, quite the opposite. My motto has always been, it'll be alright. It will.