AN OUTSIDER: belonging nowhere means going everywhere
As humans, weāre social animals. Anyone outside of our circle suddenly feels āwrongā to us. Not with us. Not one of us.
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Childhood wasnāt easy for me. I struggled to express who I am. My peers didnāt open their circles to a kid like me.
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Iāve been the outsider in my own story.
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I left home years ago and landed in a place where everyone speaks their own language, gathers with their own people, and understands their own codes. Iām still learning how to stand on my own.
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No doubt, I have friends. Iām still learning what it means to belong, without losing myself. Iām merely a smudge on a skyscraper window, a wild grass in the forest of redwood trees, a dandelion seed drifting across this field we call Earth.
As an outsider, I can see more clearly, without the usual biases or judgments we all have. By embracing this new perspective, I view this world from a different lens.
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What a beautiful thing.
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The real question is not which group you belong in. Itās: who are you?
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Be An Outsider.
GLUED EYES: A love and hate life through the eye of a camera
Photography has always felt closest to the heart ā a way to hold our shifting emotions in a single frame.
In this series, I explore the feeling of being lost ā drifting through illusions of love and friendship, where even the strongest among us can lose clarity.
With the help of my friends Nev and Sean, I recreated the push and pull of connection: her eyes filled with hatred or disgust, yet her body clinging to him; his face often hidden, yet his presence gentle and caring.
Abroad.
I realize the place I always called āabroadā starts to feel like āhomeā
though sometimes, Iām alone. (12)
There are days I dream of going back
But when Iām back.
The streets feel unfamiliar,āØAnd what once was home,
Doesnāt feel like home anymore.
nowhere and everywhere feels home.
We all learn to adopt
To new faces, languages, and ways of being. (13)
but still questioningā¦
whether I belong?
(14)
