Untold International is a 501c3 nonprofit organization based in Colorado. Our focus is on literacy and storytelling.
Supporter-submitted short stories, anecdotes, poetry, and other writings under 100 words on the theme of belonging.
Your voice matters. Share your story here.
Staying silent
There are two kinds of others: the ones who look different, and the ones who don’t. I’d known about the first kind for a long time, and I’d even experienced that a little. But no one told me about the second kind – the kind who look like they should belong, but don’t; seem familiar, but aren’t. These others blend in well, until they don’t. Their faces could be from anywhere, clothes give nothing away. It’s only when they speak that they become alien, wrong accents, misplaced words, wrong language. I didn’t know about them before. Now, I stay silent.
– Anonymous
Belonging too much
He belonged too much – that’s why he left. Belonged to that grocery store, to those few intersections, to the bright light sucked up by familiar asphalt. He belonged to the church of his youth, to the restaurant that knew what he’d order, to the little pleasures and little dreams. He belonged to the family who expected to see him, to the job that fit his commute better than his soul, to the privilege he didn’t have to think about. He belonged to things that didn’t belong to him. He belonged and longed to be – that’s why he had to leave.
– Anonymous, United States
She slept through
I was particularly more tired of my body that afternoon when I heard the car horns and a siren blaring towards my street. My 5-month old had fallen asleep not too long before, so I moved to her cot, ready to lay my hand on her back when it got too loud. And it did, but she slept through. Maybe she knew I was transfixed. Speeding down the street were dozens of colourful taxis leading a hearse, blowing their horns non-stop in solidarity. It was loud yet strangely solemn, and my eyes misted over. I really was tired that day.
– Amma Konadu, Ghana
Together!
Humanity: a sea of individuals thrust together by gravity, DNA and other unrelenting forces. The particles of our selves coalesce in unity, belief and similarity but we tear ourselves asunder over the trivial and the meaningful alike. We allow differences to separate us. To survive, we must unite in truth and the clear vision of reality, however harsh or painful it is. To belong to the human race is to embrace hatred and love in equal yet contradictory measure. There is no lesser group than “human” worth claiming, nor any greater aim worth pursuing. Division is destruction; unity, success. Together!
– Anonymous, United States
We cannot sin alone
Friends who value you, including your failures as well as your successes, are worth the world. We change ourselves, we humans, for better and for worse depending on our associations with one another. In isolation, there are neither saints nor villains. We cannot sin alone; nor can we reach salvation alone. Humanity is more than the sum of its parts because we bond with each other, bonds stronger than the most deviously engineered epoxy. Our associations lead us to atrocities like the Holocaust and astonishments like the moon landing. We are more together than ever we could be apart.
– Anonymous, United States
Swinging on the monkey bars of culture
Some of us are shadows who creep around the edges of society, always pleasant and well-meaning but never quite integrating with the rest of you. We swing along the monkey bars of our cultures, always in motion and afraid to settle down. Our chief fear is to be abandoned and so we continually seek novelty because only those whom we care about, with whom we have connected, can abandon us. The greatest vulnerability we have is not belonging, and there is nothing we crave more or are not incapable of achieving than to belong. Such is the nature of Humanity.
– Anonymous, United States
They welcomed their destruction
They welcomed me although I would destroy them. Their dances continued although I weighed down their feet. Their songs resounded although I cracked and frayed their voices. Their art continued although I blurred and faded their vision. They refused to submit although I abducted them, old and young, year after year and generation after generation. I belonged to the humans although they were mine to destroy. They absorbed me in their rituals and beliefs while I absorbed them each and every one inexorably. Unlike every other race, the humans both fought me and embraced me. I outlasted them with regret.
– Anonymous, United States
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