In our hyper connected digital age, people throw around the word community for everything. Community now means followers, it means likes, it means customers, and many others.
The feeling and sense of community is slowly fading away and being replaced by something else. It’s not the same anymore.
What does the word community really mean? Is it just a buzzword slapped onto any group of people with a shared interest? Or is it something more profound, more fundamental, more… human?
We here at the villager believe that community is a feeling. You can only see parts of it, but you can feel the whole of it.
Community is a place where people come to feel connected. That sense of belonging you get when you realize you’re not just an individual standing alone, but part of something greater than yourself.
It’s an experience.
The feeling of comfort knowing you can rely on the people around you. You can ask for help, you can support each other. You could even change the world together if you wanted to.
A community is a place where passion meets commitment, where sincerity is the norm, and acceptance is the currency. It’s where you find others who not only share your interests and values, but also your vision of the world and your desire to matter.
Community is not a word we take lightly, and your role in it is not something we take for granted. Every person reading these words matter to us, a lot. Because they are part of our village, our community.
Over the last four months since we took over from Ellen, we have been learning how to run a magazine. It wasn’t until recently that we realized that what we’re actually doing is learning how to bring a community together.
In our journey so far, we’ve had the privilege of getting to know some truly amazing individuals. People who are passionate about what they do, who are eager to learn and grow, who are driven by a desire to make a difference. These are the individuals who inspire us every day, who remind us why we do what we do.
After all, it takes a village.
