The Homes We Make Online

The internet wasn't just connection.
It was belonging.

Before I even knew what I was looking for, I found pieces of myself online.
In random forums. In weird YouTube rabbit holes. In late-night conversations with people I’d never meet in person.

It’s easy now to talk about the internet like it’s just noise. Or content. Or algorithms. But back then — and even now, in quieter corners — it felt like something else.
A place. A feeling. A home you could carry with you.

Some of us didn’t grow up with people around who got it. We were the odd ones. The curious ones. The ones thinking about things no one around us was talking about. So we went online. Not to escape — but to find.
To find people who asked the same questions. Who built weird projects just for fun. Who cared deeply about things the world didn’t seem to notice.

And that changed everything.
Because once you feel that kind of recognition — that “you too?” feeling — it’s hard to unfeel it.
You realize you’re not weird for wanting more. You’re not alone for dreaming bigger. You’re just early.

Over time, we stopped just joining spaces. We started making them. A Discord server. A Notion doc turned community. A random side project that grew into something real.
We started creating the rooms we wished we had — for people like us. And those became homes, too. Not flashy. Not perfect. But real.

That’s the internet I fell in love with. Not the one chasing attention, but the one quietly building belonging.
The one that reminded me — and keeps reminding me — that it’s okay to be figuring it out.
That somewhere, someone’s building their own little world too.

And maybe, if we’re lucky, our worlds overlap. And we get to build something together.