Daniel Wynn is a Northwood University undergraduate student and a linebacker on the University’s football team. He graduated from Cass Tech High School in Detroit. He wrote the poem “I Belong” as part of an effort by the Northwood Athletic Department’s Diversity and Inclusion Group (DIG), in conjunction with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), to promote diversity and inclusion.
The definition of belonging is
an affinity for a place or situation.
As I look around my campus day after day,
I meet new people,
I see new faces and I embrace different personalities.
What Northwood means to me is success,
what it means is diversity and also what it means is togetherness.
Students and faculty who come from different walks of life
are clustered together on this campus,
and we learn things about them which in turn makes us learn more about ourselves,
which also causes us to do things differently, think differently and say things differently.
To me that’s a part of going MAD,
but what it means to belong is to feel at home though you’re miles away from it,
to be comfortable around new people and get to know them,
to stand together in the face of adversity and to conquer our fears as a community,
no matter race,
no matter religion,
no matter the person, we are all connected and we are all together at this wonderful campus.
We are a family and we are Timberwolves and it is a blessing to belong to something that is bigger than your-self,
all in all be blessed to belong and GO MAD.
