Living in community- it's like a little zendo for living in the world

I was thinking about how much I had learned about myself during the week that I had decided to semi live in community at the zen center (I decided to eat my meals at the zen center for a week). I was thinking how important it was to my practice: to learn about who I am when I am with others.
I also thought about a comment I often hear from people in practice: it's easy to do this here, around like minded individuals who are intending to do this practice- who are attempting to listen to you, who are trying to learn about themselves, who are trying to be patient and kind. But when you get out into that big world, people often aren't like that, and it's really hard to put this into practice when people don't respond to you with kindness, patience, attention.

And I thought about how that's true- that it really is easier to practice this at the zen center. I thought about how fortunate it is that I can practice doing this at the zen center where people are patient with me, where they accept me, and through these things, allow me to see myself just as I am, without judgment, blame, anger.
But I also think that having this place to try these things out, this somewhat controlled environment (though believe me, any community has its share of difficulties regardless of how well- intentioned its members may be), allows me to deepen my practice to a place where it makes it a little bit easier to do this in the outside world.
I think that having this place where I can learn about myself supports me to be less focused or insecure about myself when I am out in the world. I think that having success with patience or communication inside the zen center supports me to be patient and try to communicate with others outside the zen center.

So for me, it's like a zendo. The zendo is this somewhat contrived environment of silence and minimal distractions where you are supported by the people around you to do all kinds of meditation practice: arriving late, sneezing, crying, bowing when you're not supposed to, sitting still, etc. And you need this environment to practice this practice, it supports you to grow and reflect upon your meditation practice and it removes some of the obstacles to meditation: noise, distraction, knowing when to start/ stop, and you are surrounded by other meditators who have gone through what you're going through so they're there as models for you and to provide you with support. And for me, I think living in community is like that too. You're there, living with others, trying things out in a place where you feel safe to make mistakes in being yourself and the people there are just there, to let you be, to learn for yourself, about this life.