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he definition of belong, with respect to an individual, is to fit in a specified place or environment. As an adolescent on the verge of becoming an adult but with the tendency to act as a child, I have at times questioned where do I actually belong. However, I am not the only one in this struggle, as there are many young adults like myself that are also struggling to identify where they belong in their environment, and in the contemporary world itself. There are many factors that affect one’s sense of belonging: immigration and social media being two major ones. Due to factors like these, adolescents are afraid to be ‘different’, different meaning to be themselves, because it has become extremely difficult to belong in our contemporary world than it has and rather conform to what others believe of being ‘normal’ in order to belong and fit in. Belonging has become harder than before, because in their attempt to find their sense of belonging, young adults are completely prone to these factors and to their environment, such that leads them astray from their true self.

Immigration is not something that occurs in every individual’s life, but when it does, it has major impacts on how one tries to find where they belong. At the age of seven, I immigrated to Canada, and I am most thankful to my parents for doing so. My journey to belong had begun, and after schooling for a few months, I had done well in making a couple friends, but I was still adjusting to the domestic society. One thing that I noticed, was the huge difference between how I behaved at home, and how I behaved at school. I was a shy, timid and chubby boy who spoke only on request, but at home, I was a totally different individual, asking my parents question after question ...

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...ronment where they can be true to their self. Immigrants have the most trouble in finding where they belong, because not only must they adapt to the foreign culture emotionally, but also adapt to the new physical environment as well in order to find somewhere to belong. Social media will continue to lure teenagers into wanting to belong to an environment that exists online, either on television or on the internet, and forget that online is a whole other thing than reality. Therefore, in an attempt to belong, we forget who we are as an individual and become an ‘other’, identifying ourselves as exotic, unfamiliar, and attractive, but forget that our self is not our other. This is why in perspective of a young adult, it has become extremely difficult to belong in our contemporary world than it has been before. The solution: go back to the basics and be more self-aware.