I heard a man boil the root cause of all his fear-driven self-sabotage down to one sentence: “Deep down, I believed that nothing good can ever last.” I have often felt this way about community - just when I find a circle of people that miraculously feels just right, the circle of safety inevitably wavers and breaks.

We come here, to digital homes like Hi to find a place of belonging. We hope that if we show the truest part of ourselves, the right people will naturally be drawn to us and we will experience that elusive click of connection.

This connection is something that I rarely encounter in my day to day life- but when I find it, every part of me sighs with knowing.

Something about writing my first- and last- submission for for Hi, made me feel welcomed and more fully able to be me than any other online platform. And maybe it’s also because I know in a few days, it will be gone. I’ve always found it to be easier to be honest when I knew that goodbye was waiting just around the corner.