Everyone fits in a welcoming world

​I spoke at an event at George Mason University (GMU) yesterday. The event was a partnership between GMU, Fairfax County Public Schools and the Virginia Department of Education. The theme of the event was meaningful:

You don't have to fit in when you belong.

The purpose of the event was to empower students to create welcoming and accepting school cultures. It always amazes me and equally encourages me to hear how much our youth know about acceptance and welcoming.

One young lady said that too many people are focused on having amazing schools when all we really want is welcoming schools. She made the point that amazing and welcoming aren't always the same.

I thought about that on a broader scale.

I thought about how much of the leadership of our world focuses on building an amazing world when what most of us long for is a world we feel like we can belong to. So many people feel less amazing every day as they continue to lose the battle to fit in.

When you listen to young people talk about building a welcoming world, you don't hear them talk about the things other people need to change to better fit in. Young people talk about how they can change to accept people for who they are.

Young people more than anyone understand the pressures of trying to fit in.

Young people more than anyone understand what it takes to alleviate that pressure.

Young people more than anyone know no relationship grows if people don't feel safe in it.

Young people more than anyone know no one learns in spaces where they don't feel safe.

Young people more than anyone know the health of our future starts with going out of our way to make people feel healthy about theirs.

It's hard to daily try to fit in. Exhausting, really. Wouldn't it be nice to have a world focused on reminding people they already do?

Our kids know how to do that. I'm grateful for the teams I got to spend time with yesterday who not only recognize it but want to magnify it.

And spread it.

Because we're all spending too much time trying to fit in.

And it's exhausting. Far more exhausting than just being welcoming.