I touched on “belonging” last week and wanted to dive into that a little further today. Many psychologists consider belonging to be a basic human need—but what does belonging look like for people like us?

Choosing a life that goes against the status quo can make us feel like we don’t belong in regular society. We’re different from others we know. People living a “normal” life often don’t understand us or our choices. And living an international or nomadic lifestyle, without a home or far from what we consider(ed) home, may also affect our sense of belonging to a place the way many people do.

So where do we belong? Does it matter?

For me, the Internet has certainly helped a lot in finding community where I belong or that feels like home. In fact, years ago I had a personal blog with the tagline “At least a nomad can have an online home,” and I’ve described the Collective as “your home for a global location-independent lifestyle,” a community that you can be part of no matter where you go.

Is getting our sense of belonging online enough? That’s something we each need to decide for ourselves, but I think it’s a good start. Even if we seek out places where we can belong locally, it can be reassuring to have the consistency of being around the same people online, especially if it feels like we’re constantly starting over in person.This ties back in to having a home base as well.

If you don’t want to feel like you’re always starting over in person, and having a local community and sense of belonging is important to you, a home base might be a good fit for you. A home base doesn’t have to literally mean owning or renting a home long-term; it might simply be returning regularly to a place you know and love or where your people are.