Social Class

As we live our lives every day with food, clothing, electricity and water there are people in the world that dont have any of that. Most of us live our lives with out even thinking about the possbility of one day that poor man on the side of the road being us. After viewing the video and seeing how many people in the world have little to nothing and they were once full of life like us, it makes us realize that this world is full of people in poverty. I feel like for the most part once you have become poor it is very diffciult to pick yourself back up and move on. This is probably because your mental attitude has changed and you are looked at differently. If you work hard enough though you may be able to move up in life. Our society is a combination of the american dream and the rich getting richer, poor getting poorer. I think that saying is up to you and how you live you life and view the society and community around you.

This doesnt belong to me..postivie deviance

As we all know during this season the wind becomes really bad and things start to fly all over if they are not tied down. When i came home from school today i noticed some garbage cans laying in my yard. I knew right away these were not my garbage can because they were a different color. Most people would just leave the garbage cans where they are and wait for the owners to come get them for themselves. For me today, this was not the case. I decided to do an act of positive deviance and bring my neighbors their garbage cans, i brought them from my yard up to their garage door. It was nice to help some one else out because i would hope that someone would do the same back towards me. I hope my neighbors will be thankful for the help they recieved. These acts of positive deviance can change someones day and alter moods because they are things that we do positively that are out of the norms of society. The more we do these acts the better a community can become.

I am a Female.

Gender roles play an important role in some peoples life because it shapes who they are. The media has become more and more important in this socializing agent as well. Media suggests that girls should be more into shopping and dolls  and boys should be more into video games and sports. Although people may want this to be true, it certainly is not and now a days its changing more and more. In my family i am surronded by girls, i have a younger sister, many girl cousins as well as only 3 boy first cousins. This has made an impact in what i was to play with while growing up. As i am now graduating high school, who i am and how i categorize my self has changed. I wouldnt say im a girly girl but i wouldnt say im a tomboy. I do hang out with many girls but i also have many guy friends. As the society and community around us keeps changing so do we. So next time some body tells you that "girls cant do that" challenge them by asking why not?

Blog 9 - Socializing agents

I feel that as a senior in high school many socializing agents have taken over who i am. I feel that a main one is my friends and who i associate my self with. Since freshman year my friends have been changing and growing, and as much as any body else i enjoy fitting in. Its these groups of friends though that have made me who i am. I have picked up on different type of language and accronyms through them, as well as how i dress and what i do when we hang out. I woudlnt say that they have made me a bad person but i would say that it has deffinitly changed some of my viewing on the world and on society.

Blog 6- American Culture

American culture is viewed differently by everyone in the world, and the way we go about our norms is also very different. I feel that American culture shapes us to be who we are in this world. The way our culture forms is from the society and community around us. For example: the worlds technology is always changing. Because of this us Americans have created a culture where it is socially acceptable to be on our pieces of technology 24/7.

Like we talked about in class with the babies and Denmark, i also believe that when you go somewhere else, and the culture is not the same as you are used to, that you change your ways and go about there ways. You may not feel comfortable at first but adapting to each others culture gives us different perspectives on the world and different experiences.

To be an American it is someone who is a part of a community and someone who has followed values or beliefs.

Canada, Ey?!

In the US we speak English almost every where we go, but what happens when we go outside the US? Do we still speak English?


I have been to Canada a couple of times because my aunt is from there, but my aunt speaks English. So, when i went to Canada my first time i learned that not everyone there speaks the same language as me. I began to hear French from many places. I became very confused because it was something i have never heard before and it was odd to me.


Although they speak a different language i was able to communicate with them because the symbols and body language we use here in the US is very much the same.


After a couple days in Canada I came to realize that the norm there was different than my norm but all in all, we were all people just getting by with life.

Blog 4 - Theroies

Each day we see many different symbols that mean different things to us and we interpret them in different ways. This is symbolic interactionism.


For many of us when we see the big blue "W" during the spring time, or baseball time, we can take a guess that the Cubs just won a game. This one letter can shape people to become who they are and how they live. This may just be a letter but it is also a sign of winning or success to Chicago baseball fans. As baseball season moves along the more big "W" flags we see the happier we get, but then there are some people that don't like the Cubs and see the "W" as something negative.

In this generation, symbolic interactionism can mean almost anything. We are all different and unique and see things through different eyes..

I was voted off the boat

This past week we played a game called Life Boat. There were originally about 15ish people on the boat and we had to break it down to only 9 people by kicking people off. Like this post title says, i was kicked off the boat. My character had epilepsy, but no medicine. Playing that character made it really difficult for me to stand up for my self and try and stay in. Immediately everyone was attacking me telling me i was going to die anyways. There were some people that stayed really quiet so they lasted a while, but then there were some who  took charge or were really loud. I think that goes to show just what happens when you are in a situation like that with many people trying to collaborate and make one decision.


Also this past week we heard "Goodnight iPad" and created a mindset list that really opened up my eyes because it was all painfully true. I had never really thought before how much technology was a part of our lives and that we couldnt really live with out it. The mindset list was funny to create because we our living in a totally different generation and type of society than our parents.


happy weekend :)

Only after the first couple of weeks..

    Only after the first couple of weeks i have learned so much about sociology and about myself as a person! Starting off the week we put 3 people in chairs in the front of the room and we were given words to describe them. We then had to vote on what words we felt best described them. I didn't know these 3 people very well so i had to pick from what i felt. I admit that i did judge them a little in order to pick these 3 words, but after the activity and hearing what they thought of themselves i realized that in order to really know what words describe the person you have to know them as a person.
      Going along with judging people, in the middle of the week we had to write down adjectives we felt were correct for certain types of people. One of them was a gold medalist. I wrote down many words that an athlete would be. When we then discussed as a class and were showed a picture to describe a gold medalist, my mind completely changed. We were shown a picture of a girl involved with the Special Olympics with a gold medal. This hit me hard. I have a cousin with Autism, along with the fact that I work for the Special Olympics and NWSRA (an association for people with special needs). I realized that our perspective on life and on people is totally centered on our normal everyday life and what most perceive as normal, when really people with special needs are just as normal as us.
        Already this class has taught me to open my eyes, be less judgmental and see each person as a unique being.

CARPE DIEM.

Each person has a different view on life and each person will make something different of their life. If you are preparing your life and organizing it step by step you will never live. Your life will happen as it happens and sometimes the better memories are those that are random and improved. Don't let your life waste a way, live each moment to the fullest and let it happen.

I live my life day by day. I cherish each day like its the last. With high school coming to an end i have learned so many valuable lessons and made so many memories. Being a gymnast, i have realized that life and time is to short to take time and prepare. Set your mind on something and go for it. If you believe you can achieve. My team has a saying,

"Believe the Unbelievable, and become fearless to be stronger" This year we added Carpe Diem.

This saying hasnt just helped me with gymnastics it has helped me with living my life to the fullest. Be who you are and show others what you can be.

Carpe Diem. Sieze the day.