My New Community

My New Community

Introduction

Lack of exposure to a situation that forces one to join a discourse community may make them mistake it for an easy task.

• I spent the early years of my life away from my family.
• The low income of my single mother may have forced her to leave me under the care of my aunt who lived at a faraway town.
• Life with my aunt never seemed to follow any strict religious order. Finishing my ordinary level studies still under the care of my aunt made me so different from my siblings.

The circumstances one goes through in their life determine how easily it will be for them in joining a discourse community.

Body

• It was hard for me to adapt to the religious beliefs of my new home.
• It was difficult to accept my parent’s responsibility in raisin me up.
• My mother was a staunch follower of religion who seemed to stand none of the behavior I had developed.
• There was no issue in taking alcohol according to the way I was raised.
• I had grown thinking that a man could never be said to be mature if they did not take alcohol.
• I had never noted that my mother was not into drinking. The financial challenges could not allow me to go home regularly and my aunt seemed to be controlling my stay in her place since she used to pay all my bills.
• Most of the times I would only get a two weeks holiday to go home with my aunt after four years.
• My mother was so determined to change my character.
• There was an abrupt stop of financial support I had been receiving from my parents.
• Changing my Sunday routine was a real struggle.
• During my stay with my aunt, Sunday was a day to either rest or visit friends and was not used to regular church attendance.
• It seemed to me that I was being exposed to rejection by members of my own family. Although no one would directly want to show it to me, I was feeling it right that I was being exposed to some rejection.
• My neighbors seemed to be judging me for not being as ‘good’ as my siblings.
• The rules about return home in the evening where much different in my new home.
• A home organization with a specific time limit for coming home was strange. My family resided in the village whose plan was completely different from my aunt’s home in the town.
• In my new home, returning home past eight in the evening was only left specifically for spoilt kids who had lost morals.
• It would feel like a form of rejection coming home late and realising that no one is talking to you.
• I was a great fun of partying and staying late at night but my parents were against it.
• My great interest in partying and staying late in night dances was the last thing my parents and close friends could tolerate of me.
• Attending overnight bashes back in town and become so common such that an idea that I should be at home on a Friday night would make me feel sick.
• I had to replace with overnight parties with church services or sleep.

Conclusion

• I had to take a whole year wholly fitted into my new community.
• I no longer felt the desire to consume alcohol, came home at the right time and stopped my irresponsible partying behavior.
• I even began to appreciate my desire to stay in church even more than the expected time.
• My experience in joining a new community with entirely new beliefs gave strength to be able to fit myself in any society.