On masking, connection, and why belonging can look different from what we were taught. Is it strange to admit that I have never really felt like I fit anywhere? For a long time, I thought that meant something was deeply wrong with me. If I could not find belonging even among my own people, then surely the problem had to be me. But I have been sitting with that feeling long enough to start questioning it. And the more I look at it, the more I think it is both more complicated