Heeeello there dear readers! How are you? I've woken up thinking about community today.
Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash
In this post I want to divert a little bit from the travel topic I'm used to write about, even though I think the concept of community is directly related to travelling.
This post will be a great opportunity for me to develop a wider range of thought - which is kinda hard for my engineer mind, I tend to stick to what works. Thinking this way, it's always nice to get out of the comfort of writing about crazy stories.
With that being said, let's start with the dictionary.
com·mu·ni·ty
- 1.a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.
- 2.a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.
Have you ever stopped to think about all the incredible things that happen when you are travelling?
I'm not even talking about enjoying breathtaking landscapes, or tasting that delicious local meal, nor the beautiful pictures we take. Those are great, I have no doubt. But I'm talking about all the small details, that sometimes, pass unnoticed by many.
I've hitchhiked or travelled by unconventional ways on most of my trips, this gave me the opportunity to see the best side of the human being, to see what union can achieve and to realise that yes, the world is indeed made by good people.
Many times I've been helped by strangers, have reunited with strangers to do something, have shared a meal with people from the other side of the world, found job in the middle of nowhere and so on... this is what a good community can provide.
Would I have experienced all this if I hadn't put myself into difficult moments - when I had no more money in the middle of a journey, for example?
Possibly not. It's when you need that you value union, otherwise you won't care.
But I don't want to talk about travel this time, I want to talk about the great things we can achieve when we reunite for the good, in general.
Why has the community concept arised so strong in my mind lately?
Because many incredible things have happened lately that opened my eyes for this topic, both offline and online.
I'm a teacher, and at my workplace we have a colleague that works cleaning, a very humble and nice lady. For some reason she seemed sad and we couldn't discover why. It turned out that her fridge had stopped running because it was old, no more fixing in that case. A friend at work proposed that we reunited, so every one at the school gave a little money and guess what? From small amounts of every single person we managed to buy a second hand fridge for her. That small amount of money, that for me was nothing, reunited with others to achieve something greater, unimaginable.
This same colleague who proposed to gather money for the fridge told me later this week that he's started volunteering in some sort of community work - interesting, I though.
However, he was worried about posting about it on social media.
- I don't know man, I don't want to talk about this... I know some of the people out there, they'll say that I'm only trying to show up. - He said.
We chatted about it while sipping a coffee during the break; our conclusion was:
If, for each person that criticise you, 2 or 3 decides to follow your good example. Then that one critic means nothing.
After this conclusion we've talked about some awesome projects that could be developed inside poor communities, again... union achieving great objectives.
But it doesn't stop there...
Scrolling through my feed on steemit I stumbled upon this amazing project presented by @veckinon.
Springtime at the Garden of Eaton
I thought it is amazing! Perfect for my city where we have some really poor communities and many lands unused. The best way to give people a chance to cultivate their own food, to use abandonned land, to teach the kids some manual labor and the value of work, to give them some hope! My city needs to develop something like this.
Then the mind blow happened yesterday...
Yesterday I took some time off of Steemit after releasing a gigantic story telling and when I came back, there it was; the massive support. It felt amazing seeing my work being supported by the Steemit community.
It opened my eyes even more to realise how important it is to be here, to be part of it. Steemit represents everything I wish for us, as humans - a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.
I can see now the important role I play as an 'author' and how working harder and harder I can not only achieve my own objectives in life, but I can also influence a whole ecosystem where everyone wins. I feel like in a mission to bring attention for the importance of a united group.
Everytime I get such a massive support, be it by an upvote or by a humble comment on my work, I feel in debt. I feel like I'm not being able to retribute what I get. But it gives me confidence to POWER UP, because one day I'll have the power to value the ones below me.
I'd like to conclude...
with a gigantic THANK YOU for all the readers, friends and projects that support me - I won't list you here because I fear of missing a name - you know who you are.
The COMMUNITY here is what keeps me working both online and offline. Together we can achieve incredible objectives.
And remember, a small act for you, may make a huge difference to someone else.
I hope you've enjoyed this post. If you liked it, consider giving your upvote for a hot coffee.
~Love ya all,
Disclaimer: The author of this post is a convict broken backpacker, who has travelled more than 10.000 km hitchhiking. Following him may cause severe problems of wanderlust and inquietud. You've been warned.
I'm Arthur. I blog about Adventure Stories, Brazil, Travel, Camping & Life Experiences.
Follow me to stay tuned for more craziness and tips.
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