Most people find a sense of belonging or meaning by having a particular role in their community, regardless of how community is defined. Do you know what your role is or will be, or what you would like it to be? (Please remember that if your homework response is too personal to share on the blog, you may always had it in on paper.)
Read “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” a short story by Sherman Alexie, linked here: this-is-what-it-means-to-say-phoenix-arizona.
Dawson Journeys English 
Personally, I’m not quiet sure where I stand or belong within my community. I feel that I don’t play a big enough role in anything community related and as in community i mean the town that I live in as well as the people who live here. I was never a person to be well known through sports, or anything big and I probably never will be. And I’m totally fine with that..As a youth of my community, i feel that anyone who is going to be the future generations are important, simply because they’re the future…I feel that as long as I continue to respect the responsibilities that the community set out is a good enough contribution. I feel that as I grow up, who knows what I’ll get myself into. Maybe one day I could be an important person within my community but as of right now, I know that I belong to be here and as long as i am here I will respect my community.
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Respect and responsibility are great starting points! I agree that youth are important members of a community.
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Sage Goodleaf September 11, 2016
Roles response
The ability to find a role in one’s family, community and self is quite an achievement in itself. To elaborate, we all have roles, based on the physical relationship, for example. The roles I earned in my family is being a daughter, aunty, cousin, student and sister. There are multiple hats I wear in my family. However, none are the ones created myself. I was just born into the “roles” .
As a daughter I am obligated to help do the chores, keep my room clean, and respect my parents.
As an aunty, I must always demonstrate a candour forefront, and teach my niece the proper properties of being polite. Similarly to the Aunty responsibilities, are those of being a cousin to younger cousins.
As a student, my only duty is to finish the work provided, understand, memorize it, and be able to discuss it in class as well as keep a high average.
As sister I am obligated to always be there for my brothers, as well as to keep in touch and always know what’s happening in their current lives.
Subsequently, there is one category I was apprehensive to put, which is friend, due to the fact that I know where my place is in the relationship, because I made it. As a friend, I pledge that I will always be there for them despite the difficulties. I will always know how to cheer them up, and I will always be there anytime they need me. Once we are friends, there is no turning back; we become a little family. Like Lilo from Disney’s classic Lilo and Stich says “ Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.”
But in general, I am very pleased with the roles I hold, even if I didn’t make them all, because each and every role I was placed in, are a part of who I am. They make me…me.
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You’re right to note that we all have multiple roles in life, all with their particular challenges.
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For me my own role is not quite defined yet but I got an idea of the many possibilities for a future role for me. For instance since I’m looking into physiotherapy technician or diagnostic imaging (x-ray) I would be looking into working at the hospital since there building a new addition to it there also adding a x-ray and a bigger physio department so it would give me the advantage of getting a role there. Other than that I would probably end up teaching the young generation of wrestling if the head coach retires or try and apply for a job as a gym teacher somewhere, preferably KSS.
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Those are very positive roles!
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I think the role in my family is the guru. What I care for most is everyone’s health and well-being. My family fights A LOT. Believe me. It can be over the littlest things too even which is pretty sad. I believe I was born to spread peace. I offer advice too a lot and I’d like to think that the advice I give is good because my family keeps coming back for more and more of it. Really this is too hard of a question to answer but I guess all I can say is my role in my family is the glue, trying to keep us together even though we already started falling apart.
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It sounds like your family really values that role!
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I may be the only one with my train of thought but I always wanted to be a financial advisor to my community. The thought of me steering my community to financial success has almost always been at the forefront of my mind. Failing that though, I would probably just be a financial benefactor to many small businesses in my community.
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That’s an important role!
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I’ve never really found that i belong in my community. Having a “role” seems odd to me. From my prospective roles haven’t really been a thing. I find the idea that someone been given a specific “role” be silly. Are they assigned? Chosen? All that beening said, I’ve always assumed the “role” of a leader within my group of friends. Do i guess in a community I’d feel most comfortable as a leader, or someone who assists a leader.
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Are you developing a sense of what skills and qualities are needed of a leader?
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Right now, my role in the community is the same as all the other youth; leave and bring something back. There’s a saying in my family, and in many families I’m sure, that goes, ” Kahnawa:ke will always be here, go out and explore, but don’t forget to come back.”….. or something along those lines.
As for the role I would like to assume, it would have to be someone who eases ones who aren’t particularly comfortable in relearning our ways. That is something I’m very passionate about and would love to share.
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That’s a very important role!
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I honestly don’t know what my role is in my own community. Whenever people come up to ask me what I wanna be later on in life, I always say “I don’t know” or “I have no idea” because it’s true, I don’t know what I want to be later on. How would I know what exactly my role is, if I don’t know what I want to be or what I wanna be doing for the rest of my life? It’s kind of hard for me to know what role I have for my community. Not just because I don’t know, but because I don’t see what I have done for the community to make me earn a role.
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