What is your first reaction when you hear the word “community?” You probably associate it with a warm and fuzzy feeling. You feel a connection — a sense of belonging to something bigger than just you and your family. The word brings about a feeling of support and shared interests. Some might say it’s about unity or oneness, or that it’s about shared values, customs and even religion. You might even associate it with a place such as the town you grew up in or where you went to high school or college.
But the meaning of the word community is more complex than that. Today, communities are often diverse, and sometimes the interests aren’t shared, or the goals aren’t quite as common. Global migration has also led to a wide range of communities. Even if people have similar definitions for the word itself, their experiences can differ significantly. Often there are communities within communities — some organized, and some not so much. These communities within communities further refine the purpose of their existence.
When I look around in the city of Southlake, I see many of those same communities. Some I am part of, some which I want to be part of and others that don’t have much in common with me or my interests. I feel very fortunate to be part of communities that are welcoming and inclusive, whether it is my gardening community, my own group I started to provide home-baked breads to immigrant families called The Bread Basket or Dignity For All Texas Students, a group that celebrates and advocates for diversity and inclusion for all students. With social media being ubiquitous, we now have online communities, and just like real-life communities, some are helpful and some may be downright toxic. So how do we build or be part of communities where people build relationships, build trust and positively impact the environment around them?
I was born and raised in the very diverse country of India and moved to the United States as an adult. My roots and values define what I seek in a community. I am reminded of the times I was included in religious ceremonies by my neighbors in Mumbai who were of a different faith. I am reminded by the diverse student community in Chicago that gave me a sense of belonging, and I am reminded of the bustling cities I’ve lived in and its diversity in cuisines that shaped my expectations of a community. Most importantly, I am reminded of the humans that impacted my experiences, all anchoring towards perhaps one common value of loving and treating people with kindness.
We often hear about unity in community. I think it’s a step even further: It’s the humanity in community. How we build empathy for those that aren’t like us. How we show compassion to experiences we know nothing about. How we bring about belonging with actions or inactions as the case might be and simply, how to live and let live.
Roshni Chowdhry is the head of customer experience for a Fortune 500 company, a wife and mother to a middle school Dragon.
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