Bishop Carroll High School
Wichita, Kansas
Teacher: Angie Etheredge

It Is a Small World
by Monica DeRee
9th grade
 

“It’s a small world” is a familiar quote many of us have heard.  The world is a community of people living, working, or being together with something similar among them.  This similarity can include a common interest, idea, or family member.  Community gives people a sense of belonging and connection.  We feel secure when we are in a safe area.  There are many communities we belong to including the world, our nation, and local cities, but it also includes our ancestors and extended families, our nuclear families and close friends.  We are connected to these groups of people in many different ways.

The biggest communities we belong to are the world, our nation, and local cities.  The world includes many people, many of which we do not know.  Technology has greatly helped connecting the world.  It has closed the cap between continents and different races.  Technology helps us communicate to people across countries and oceans.  It also helps us keep connected to our nation.  The Internet gives us communication routes such as message boards and messaging programs, national and world news, and games where we can play with anyone no matter how far they are away from us.  There are many different beliefs and interests in the nation, but we still belong to this community because we have something in common, where we live and our pride in our country.  When a tragedy occurs in our nation, all the people throng together and help each other through the tough times.  Even when there is a tragedy in other countries, America usually comes together to donate and help the people affected by the disaster in these other countries.  Everyone in the nation lives under the same national rules and laws.  In our local cities, we also live under same rules that are unique to the community.  There are newspapers that help us keep connected to what is going on in the city.  In our local cities, we know many people and deal with many of the same people everyday on a personal level.  The schools and youth is connected in the local city through city youth groups and sports or other teams.  These societies are big, but we still have our own unique place in each of these.  We are connected and belong to every one of these communities.

Other examples of communities we belong to are our ancestors and extended families.  The similarity in these families is that we all share a similar relative or many relatives.  We are connected to our ancestors because it is our family history; it is where we came from, and it shapes our lives now.  I am connected to my ancestors through the stories I have heard from my parents and grandparents.  My ancestry shows me how I arrived to the place I am today.  It shows us what our families have went through and what troubles had occurred.  Even though my grandfather and all my great-grandparents have died, I still learned life lessons from the lives they lived and the difficult times they went through.  Ancestry more closely connects us with our families and our history.  Our extended families connect us to our present day lives and family.  I especially feel this community when all the family gathers together for a special occasion, either a holiday or a birthday party.  Extended families give us a sense of unconditional love, because no matter what happens our extended families love and care for us.  I definitely feel this connection with my cousins.  We have close relationships and turn to each other in difficult times.  Our ancestry and extended families connect us to our past and present family life.  We are connected to these communities through a family member.

The last few groups of people we are connect to are our nuclear family and close friends.  This is probably the community we feel most connected to because we spend the most time with them.  We deal with them the most and know the most about each other.  We spend time with our families at home, and we spend time with our friends at school and many social events.  We are related to our families and because of this we have a bond that cannot separate us.  Whenever something bad or good occurs, my family is always there; even if we are all going in different directions, we somehow find time for each other.  My family is a close-knit group and we help each other out, with rarely fighting.  Nowadays, there are many families with problems that cannot do this.  In this situation, some part of the relationship is lost and it is never as strong as before.  Our families motivate us and help us along in tough times; this is the same with our friends.  We are connected by our friends usually through a certain similar incident or situation.  Friends usually become friends through empathy and having a situation or feeling in common.  Friends are a community which we have some control over.  We cannot control who is in our family, country, or world, but we can control who we choose to associate with.  Friends and nuclear families are our communities we usually feel most connected to and spend the most time with.  They help us through tough times and are there during the triumphant times, encouraging us and protecting us.

There are many communities we belong to including the world, our nation, and local city, but it also includes our ancestors and extended families, our nuclear families and close friends.  We are connected to these groups of people through a similarity we have between each other.  I think that these societies give us a sense of belonging.  They show us our place and we learn more about ourselves.  In conclusion, I would say that community is an important part of our lives and without it we would feel lost and misplaced.

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