Final Post

In my first blog I wrote a little bit about who I am. I talked about the clubs I'm involved with, how I enjoy singing and playing guitar, and what I get through forming connections with people. I do think all of this stuff is correct, but sociology has made me think about more of what makes up who I am. In my first blog I talked about how I'm normally a dependent person, but music is something I did on my own. I think I've always been a little ashamed of being dependent, but this class has made me see that that's not really a bad thing. As humans, we need to depend on each other. It's how we are wired and made to be. The importance of connections was just reinforced to me on a much larger level than I could have thought. In my first blog I think I talked more about connections I am consciously making, but I now see there are so many connections I haven't been aware that I've been making, but have nonetheless been made. I didn't realize how many things affect the way I think and live my life. The social construction of race, gender roles/stereotypes, the area I live in/school I go to, etc. have all played a vital role in making me who I am. I viewed those things more as facts about me, but I wasn't able to see that they truly do make up the person I am. I wouldn't be the same if I lived in a different place at a different time. It's so important to realize how you are a contributor to society. By caring so much about my appearance and wanting the perfect hair, body, skin tone, etc. I am adding to the narrow definition of female beauty in America, that really needs to be expanded. I've learned that it doesn't have to be that way though: by being sociologically mindful of how you are affecting the way everyone sees things, you can choose to affect everyone in a positive way.

Sociology Week 17

This week in sociology we talked more about race. We watched the movie Crash which dealt with many different types of racism. For example, in the movie a white woman was walking to her car with her white husband and they were carjacked by two black men who had guns. Later that night when the woman was at home, she said some nasty things about the guy who was changing her locks in the other room because he was Mexican. She assumed he was part of her gang and demanded that the locks be changed again the next morning by someone else. Later this week we also had a race panel in class. Students from our school of different races- white, black, mexican, indian, chinese- spoke about their experiences with race.

I'm Indian so I feel like I can relate as I've inevitably been stereotyped. I'm stereotyped as being really smart. Although I do like to think I am smart, I don't get straight As in math. I have my good subjects, and bad ones. Just last period I walked into my Econ class late, and we had a test today. They hadn't started the test but since I was late, everybody was already paired up in partners. The second I walked in, so many people started asking "Can Leah be in our group???" Many of these people don't even know me or the kinds of grades I get in that class- they just assume that I do well. Although it is annoying, this type of stereotyping isn't that harmful to me, but I have been teased a little bit. When I was out with friends other teenagers who were trying to be funny would walk by and just comment on me being Indian, like -"Oh you're hanging out with an Indian???" It just doesn't make sense because no one comments on white people. No one would ask me why I am hanging out with a white person. When people on the panel were talking about skin color and how it's good that they turned out to be lighter, I could relate. I'm pretty light skinned for an Indian, and as sad as it is to say, I've always been thankful for that because it really does make things easier as far as being accepted goes. I do think we have come a long long way with racism but there still really needs to be change. I think if more people took a sociology class and learned that race is just a social construction, or even saw something like the race panel, that they would be more sensitive. I had more problems when I was younger but I'm way more comfortable in my skin now.

Sociology Week 16

This week in sociology we talked about race. We learned that race doesn't actually exist, and is just a social construct. Race can change depending on where you go. For example, in America if a child has a black parent and a white parent they are known as mixed. They are still considered black no matter how they look. However, if that child was to go to a country like Brazil where there are many different classifications of race, depending on how that child looks he/she could be considered white. If race can change like this, it doesn't make sense that it has a genetic basis.

This was really interesting to me because my family is Indian but people have always thought my mom doesn't look it, and sometimes even me. My mom is incredibly light and peachy skinned and she also dyes her hair which wasn't ever really black, it used to be dark brown and now it's a reddish brown. Her eyes are also a light hazel. She isn't really categorized as white by people, but no one guesses she is Indian. However, as far back as we can trace, there are only Indians in my family. People always assume there was a mixed race marriage down the line but there never was. This just further proves that race doesn't have a genetic basis.

Community Service Post 3

For the last of my ten hours I volunteered again at Orphans of the Storm on April 28th from 11am-2:30pm. (Jackie Borchew-jackie@orphansofthestorm.org) This event took place at the shelter, it was a grilling event and I went with my boyfriend. Right near the entrance we set up a small tent with a grill and table with snacks underneath it. We were grilling hot dogs and selling snacks and water for any donation amount. It was a pretty warm day and the other volunteers were fun, there was another kid there from our high school. Being a vegetarian, I didn't grill but I held the leash of the dog we had out a lot, talked to people who were going in and out, sold people snacks, and helped set up then clean up. I liked that this event was at the shelter because when I've volunteered for the shelter at places like the mall it's hard to get people interested, but all the people around here are already interested. It was a good idea to set this up because people stay in there for hours and tend to be hungry afterwards, and there's always kids who want a snack or baked good.  I see so many of the same people volunteering at all these events, of all different ages. Many of these people have full time jobs; they aren't volunteering for school. They do it because they love it and it's a good thing to do. We definitely raised over a couple hundred dollars at least. Another reason I liked volunteering at the shelter opposed to somewhere else is because it was a reminder of why I picked this place to volunteer at. It's really heartwarming to see people come out with the right pet for them, and this shelter couldn't operate without donations, and without volunteers to run events there wouldn't be as much donation!

Community Service Post 2

I volunteered a total of 3.5 hours at Feed My Starving Children in two shifts- April 27th from 2-4pm(John Schmelzel, Libertyville Site Supervisor, at jschmelzel@fmsc.org or (847) 984-3846) and May 2nd from 8-9:30pm (Josh Rockett, Schaumburg Site Supervisor, at jrockett@fmsc.org or (847) 519-9610). I went with my boyfriend and best friend and it was fun! We packed food for starving children in places like Africa. When we got there we watched an educational video about how many hungry children there really are in the world, and the kind of work that Feed My Starving Children has done to help. It was incredibly sad, but motivational as well because since this non-profit organization began the percentage of starving children in the world has dramatically decreased. After the video, we were given instruction about how to pack the food and about the different kind of jobs there were-warehouse, food pours, baggers, sealers, labelers. We were told we had to be extremely clean and careful not to contaminate the food. In one bag of food there are vitamins, vegetables, soy, and rice. Each little bag we packed had 6 meals in it. My job was pouring the rice in the bag, and my best friend held the bag as we poured food in and then gave it to the sealer. My boyfriend did the warehouse job of walking around and refilling everyone's empty food and carrying the finished boxes, with a total of 28 bags in it, to be sent away. There was fun music playing and it was like a competition with other tables to see which table could pack the most boxes. Time went by pretty quickly and it was really easy work. Afterward, everyone cleans up and then there is an optional prayer over the boxes. After that you learn how many boxes you packed, and watch another video showing the effect Feed My Starving Children has had in so many kids' lives. Typically groups pack over 50 boxes, but the second time I volunteered there was only 15 or so of us so we packed around 24. I also got to taste a sample of the meals at the end! I liked that they did that because it was nice to know what we were sending off, and it wasn't half bad for such a simple and cheap meal! It was a really positive experience and I definitely felt like I was making a difference. I would love to go back over the summer and bring my family!

Community Service Post 1

On February 12th I volunteered from 4-7 with Orphans of the Storm animal shelter. It was a holiday pet showcase at Northbrook Court Mall led by the Orphans volunteer coordinator, Jackie Borchew(jackie@orphansofthestorm.org). Over winter break they had done a holiday pet showcase that was really successful, so they decided to bring it back for the week of Valentines Day. Basically there is a section set off for the shelter, right by Lord & Taylor. There are cats and dogs brought it for adoption to attract people to go visit the shelter and adopt! T-shirts and sweatshirts are for sale, and we also did gift wrapping for donations. Since I had the night shift, things were pretty slow. It was only me and one other volunteer, and unfortunately the animals can't be there past 3, so we were just selling clothes and gift wrapping. The woman I volunteered with had brought her own dog though, which was successful in attracting people to come over. It was different for me because I had volunteered with the winter showcase and things were really crazy and hectic then. Although I didn't have as much fun this time, it still felt good to help out. I am attached to this organization because I have adopted 3 cats from the shelter myself. The showcase was going on for a week and over 5,000 dollars were raised which is really awesome because the shelter runs on donations. They are one of the few shelters that doesn't kill animals for being there for a long time, and they take all the animals from the Lake County area. I was really happy I was a part of raising that 5,000 dollars!

I don't have a picture from this showcase (just the verification form), but here is one from the winter one!

Sociology Week 15

This week in sociology we continued our discussion of social class. We watched the movie, "People Like Us" and "30 Days". This one part of People Like Us really stuck with me. It showed this family in the US who was living well below the poverty line. This single mother had a few children and they all lived in a trailer. She had to walk 10 miles to work everyday, which was at McDonalds. It was so sad to see. I cannot ever imagine walking ten miles to a job, let alone that job being McDonalds. It was also really sad because her son was clearly very embarrassed of her and extremely disrespectful. In the movie "30 Days" it was a wealthy couple attempting to live off of minimum wage for a month. It was really difficult for them. They had to get a really small apartment that had no furniture and ants crawling all around. They couldn't enjoy holidays and birthdays because they didn't have the money to. They also both ended up having health problems that landed them in the emergency room totaling to over 1000 dollars. It's impossible for someone on minimum wage to pay that. That made me think of the time my little sister went to the emergency room, got tylenol and that's it, and was charged 500 dollars. I can't imagine who we could pay that off if my parents were working minimum wage jobs. It's really an eye opener to see how so many people in this country have to live. And as we've been learning, it's really tough to move up in social class. People say you just have to work hard, but the truth is that a lot of these people working minimum wage are working very hard.

Sociology Week 14

This week in sociology we talked about social class. It's interesting because no one talks about it. It's a subject that is so commonly avoided, and it's rude to bring it up. No one wants to offend anyone, and it is just an uncomfortable subject altogether. We learned that it really isn't that common to have a lot of money. Even to be upper middle class, is being above most of the United States. It doesn't feel that way though. Living here in the suburbs I know that me and most of my friends usually think of ourselves as average. As I get older I'm starting to see that we are well above average. It reminds me of a conversation I had with my sister when she first went to college. She was telling me that it was crazy to see how people lived off of way less money than we were used to. Kids who were paying for their own college with loans, who had to be very careful about what/when they ate, and who just had to be way more mindful about spending their money overall. I didn't really understand this when she told it to me, that I would be considered rich to so many people. But after growing up more, and learning about this more in class I see that it really is true.

Sociology Week 13

This week in sociology we talked about deviance. If someone is deviant they go against what is normal in society- like paying for someone else's groceries or on the other end of the spectrum stealing. Deviance can be good or bad. We read an article called "Saints and Roughnecks" who went to the same school. The saints were seen as angels, they got good grades and were loved by their teachers and society. The roughnecks on the other hand, were always getting into trouble with the police, didn't get good grades, and were seen negatively by society. However, it turns out that the saints were doing bad things also, like vandalizing, they just never managed to get caught. The saints were wealthier than the roughnecks. They lived in better neighborhoods and had resources that the roughnecks didn't. These distinctions between social class is what made the roughnecks seem more deviant than the saints.

We also talked about how when you are deviant everyone notices. This has definitely happened to me. Whenever I decide to help out more than usual in my house, my mom makes a really big deal about it. I remember one time she was gone and I was home alone and I was going to my friends house soon, so we weren't going to see each other before she got back. I knew she had been feeling kind of sick and that she was already out shopping and would be tired so I did some chores like doing the dishes. When I was at my friend's house I got a call from my mom and she was like "Is everything okay?!??! What is wrong with you?!" When you are deviant, a lot of people notice. It's hard to ignore something that is so different from the norm.

Sociology Week 12

This week in sociology we talked about masculinity and how society views/defines it. To be masculine a guy has to be tough, strong, unemotional, muscular, resilient, etc. Just how society pressures women to be and look a certain way it also does that for men. Men are always shown being dominant and strong and those are what teenage boys have to look up to. It's not socially acceptable for them to have a softer side because that is seen as weak and feminine. I've definitely witnessed this first hand in my life. I remember I liked this guy last year and we somehow got on the topic of crying. I asked him when the last time he cried was and he said "No." just "No." And I found it incredibly unattractive! I didn't like that he was trying to be all tough and prove his masculinity. It was especially interesting to me that he just said "no". It would be one thing to lie, laugh it off, and say that he doesn't cry. If that had happened I would have just figured we weren't close enough and he wasn't comfortable talking about that with me. But to completely avoid the idea of the question altogether just shows how uncomfortable the topic made him; it seemed almost threatening to him. He had vented to me about being upset before, but always in a "manly" angry way. It's okay to be upset and get angry, but its not okay to be upset and cry. I'm sure he thought that if he had admitted crying, he wouldn't seem masculine. And I think that's the problem, that men think they can't be masculine if they have a soft side. Unfortunately the definition of "masculinity" is very small with no room for expansion in today's society.

Sociology Week 10

This week we talked about how the media negatively affects girls' body images of themselves. Girls are always being bombarded with images of very conventionally "beautiful" women. Women who are thin with virtually no flaws. The crazy thing is that these women girls are looking up to usually aren't even real. Thanks to our ability to transform images, the models and celebrities we see don't appear as purely themselves. These women have their own flaws too- like Britney Spears' cellulite that was taken away- we just don't see them. We watched the movie "Killing us Softly 4". This movie talked about all of these points in detail. The only thing I didn't like about it was how it portrayed thinness. I am someone who is naturally thin and I feel like the way the woman presented it in the video wasn't right. She showed pictures of very thin models to shock the audience at how thin girls are becoming. Although I agree it's very bad that girls who aren't naturally that thin are aspiring to be, it also needs to be recognized in the media's new movement against promoting being too thin that it's okay to be thin if that is your body type. I think the message should be to be healthy through eating well and getting exercise and whatever body you end up with through being healthy, is beautiful. For some girls that's bigger, for some it's just "perfect", and for some it's more on the thin side. Similarly, I don't think it's fair for campaigns like Dove to only feature women above a certain size, or for some companies to only hire models above a certain weight. I think that in order to promote all natural body types as beautiful, all women, sizes 0 and above, should be featured as models. As bad as it is to only feature models who are a size 0, I think it's just as bad to exclude them completely.

Sociology Week 9

This week in sociology we discussed nature versus nurture. We talked about the things that make us human and how the 'nurture' part is vital in our process of becoming human. Connection and interactions with other humans at a young age is very important. We talked about cases like Genie where a child was raised in terrible conditions, isolated in a room with very little human interaction for their entire life. Sadly, once a critical period is passed, there is only so much progress a child like that can make as far as language and independent functioning go. Children like these weren't born with mental impairments, they had the "nature" part. But without the nurture, they ended up only being able to function on a level of someone who was born with mental impairments. Human interaction and connection is so important. It made me think back to the Brene Brown video when she said that we're here to feel connected to others, that's how we are wired. Although she was speaking on a more emotional level, its interesting how that also applies to this situation at a very young age. It just reinforced the importance of forming strong, loving relationships with others.

Sociology Week 8

This week in sociology class we watched the movie, Tuesdays With Morrie. It's based off the book which is a true story of how Mitch Albom, a sport's writer, has his life changed by his old, dying sociology teacher from college. Mitch's life was revolved around work, he didn't put nearly enough time into his personal life, like his girlfriend. He was constantly on his cell phone and attached to due dates and had fallen victim to very unimportant things, as many Americans do. Getting back in touch with his sociology teacher helped him to learn about what's really important in life. He wasn't valuing what he should or ever living in the moment, and Morrie showed him that.

Watching this movie really makes me want to do more meaningful things with my time. It makes me cringe to think that I put way more time and effort into my schoolwork than I do with my relationships. In Brene Brown's TED talk, she talks about the importance of being vulnerable. Up until seeing that talk, I had always thought vulnerability was a bad thing. To most Americans, being vulnerable has a negative connotation because it means that you aren't in complete control of yourself.  Many Americans value complete independence and see depending on others as a bad thing. But in order to love anyone- family, friends, significant other, etc.- you have to let yourself be dependent. Seeing this talk, and Tuesdays With Morrie has really made me value the process you have to go through in order to feel connected to others. I've always had a difficult time saying how I feel, and I see now that it's really important to do that. I want to spend more time with my family and friends before college, and tell them how important they are to me. Seeing this movie made me realize that you can't wait and put off these things because the time might pass, Mitch was lucky to have gotten in touch with Morrie before he passed.

Sociology Week 7

This week in sociology we discussed the values we have in American culture. We read an article talking about the main 13 values we as Americans all tend to have. They include - change, time, individualism, future orientation, taking action, efficiency/practicality- just to name a few. We also read another article about a man who came here from Germany and lived in Chicago, he was very surprised by the jogging phenomenon he encountered. Back in Germany, no one would ever choose to do that. Jogging is a good demonstration of American values. It's very individual, as it is done alone. Although it may be more fun to get a group of friends together to play a sport that comes into conflict with other values- like time, action, and practicality. It takes more time to arrange a sports game then it does to just get up on your own and do it- making it a much more practical form of exercise to fit into Americans' busy schedules. The man also discussed how he was surprised that Americans would even get up at 5 AM to go jogging. This illustrates the value of taking action. Doing something is always better than not, and so taking action is more "productive" than sleep to some Americans.

Reflecting on my knowledge of Indian culture I can definitely see a difference in their values versus ours. For example, in India the oldest son does not move out of his parents house typically. He will marry a woman and then bring her in to live with him and his parents to start their family there. Over here we would look down upon that saying that they aren't growing and developing as people and on their own as a family because we highly value the experience of change. It also has to do with them being less individualistic over there compared to over here. Another example I have regarding individualism is how we value privacy more than other cultures. According to our reading, privacy isn't even a word in some languages. This makes much more sense to me now as to why my parents who were raised in India have more trouble "respecting my privacy". Growing up as an American, it has always frustrated me because I feel like they owe me privacy. But where they grew up, privacy was not valued at all and someone who wanted privacy would probably be seen more as isolating themselves from the group.

Sociology Week 6

This week in sociology class we watched a documentary, "God Grew Tired of Us". It was about a group called "The Lost Boys" from Sudan who were brought to America as refugees. In the movie they experienced severe culture shock, from balloons, to electricity, to doughnuts- there is no way for them to have known these things that are so familiar to us. It was interesting because although they were living a very comfortable life compared to their life in Sudan, (having a job, sleeping in a bed, having enough food to eat/water to drink, living in an apartment, etc.) they still missed Sudan greatly. They missed the strong bonds they had with everyone there, calling American culture very lonely. Over here, you aren't able to talk to strangers without being called weird. One of the boys who worked in a grocery store noticed this woman who was crying and was so surprised and saddened by the fact that no one went to her to ask her what was wrong.

This isolation can definitely apply to my life in a way that I don't really want it to. Just the other day my mom was telling me how I'm always in my room with my door closed and I don't mingle with my family as much as I should. She continued and said that if I had been raised in India like her and my dad, that would never be okay. India's culture is much more similar to Sudan in that way. Normally I probably would have shrugged my mom's comments off, but after seeing this movie I really want to make it a point to go beyond the norm and be more sociologically mindful of how I further contribute to the isolation of American society.

Sociology Week 5

This week in sociology we discussed culture. We talked about ethnocentrism, cultural relativism, how language affects thoughts, and culture shock. Culture shock is when someone is really surprised at how a culture does something differently to theirs, we talked about how toilets are different in many countries. In some, it's simply just a hole in the floor and in order to "go" you have to squat down. It was interesting to me to hear this, because I've been exposed to it. That's how some of the toilets still are in India, where I visit often. However, I definitely experienced culture shock the first time I had encountered one when I was little. I remember how happy we were when my relatives all got Western Style toilets in their homes. It kind of bothers me now to think back on that, because it shows how we thought our way was superior to theirs (ethnocentrism).

The biggest culture shock I've experienced through my travels to India was last year, when we went to my relatives' house for dinner. Over there it's not uncommon at all to have maids coming to clean everything (mopping, dusting, etc.), do laundry, cook, and whatever else the family needs everyday. It's not really a luxury like it is here, it's seen as more of a necessity. So I was already used to that, but when I went to this relative's house, their "servant" (I don't like using that word, but that's what they use) was only 14 years old. I was 16. It was the weirdest feeling to have someone younger than me serving me my dinner. She went to school, then came to clean and serve at my relatives' house, then went home to her hut and studied and slept. This was major culture shock because over here in America someone that young would never be someone's maid/servant. Child labor like that is not okay here, and I definitely felt extremely uncomfortable and couldn't help but question the morals of my relatives- even though it isn't really a reflection on them at all because that's completely normal there. It reminded me of the article we read in class about that woman leaving her baby outside a restaurant in NYC while she ate. Over here we assume she has very bad morals, but it's okay to do that in her country.

Sociology Week 4

This week in sociology class we watched a movie called, A Bronx Tale. It is a true story about a boy named Cologero who grew up in the 50s in an Italian neighborhood in New York. Throughout his life, he belongs to many groups. His main groups are his family, Sonny, his friends, and Jane. When he was little, his master status was in his family, being a son. He rode the bus with his father often, and did what his father wanted him to when it came to lying to the cops about the killing he saw. However as he grew up and became a part of Sonny's group, which I consider to be just him and Sonny, that became more of his master status. The name change to 'C' was a major indicator of this. Everyone in town recognized him as 'C', including himself, except for his father. He gained benefits from this, such as free things and a lot of attention. Since everyone feared sunny, and he was "in" with Sonny, they respected him as well.

Similar to C, my master status has also changed as I've grown up. When I was younger it was simply being a daughter. I didn't have a solid group of friends or a boyfriend. My main role was my place in my family. I was most influenced by my parents, and my family was the group I gave most of my influence too. Although I still consider daughter as one of my master statuses, I think being a best friend has also become a master status. I have a few really close friends and they definitely have a huge influence on my life and vice versa. I think master statuses are always prone to changing because the groups we belong to are constantly changing as our lives change.

Sociology Week 3

This week in sociology we learned about the social construction of reality, how people are seen as the group they belong to, and the two main levels of sociology - macro and micro. Macro sociology is more of an umbrella term and refers to the bigger groups that people are a part of, like being an American. Micro sociology is how people within these groups interact with each other, interact with one another. For example, the dynamic of a classroom can be influenced simply by how a a teacher talks with their students - being formal and addressing people by last time will create a very different classroom feeling versus a teacher who constantly is swearing in front of the kids. To really demonstrate this, we did an activity called "Abandoned Ship". In this activity 16 people were given roles on a ship such as a pregnant woman and husband, an elderly couple, a Nobel Prize winning woman in literature, a medical student, and a few more. The group then had to interact with each other to decide which 7 people were going to be kicked off. How the group interacted with one another, like one person taking charge, or taking a majority rule vote, yelling and everyone talking at once, etc. was the micro sociology. That differed from class to class. However, the macro sociology was demonstrated because each class voted off basically the same people. The elderly couple was almost always kicked off, and the med student almost always stayed. This showed what we value as Americans. Age isn't seen as valuable as the practical knowledge of a medical student. In some other countries, like Japan, the elderly couple would most likely be the last to go. We all belong to the large group of Americans where we value youth, usefulness, and practical knowledge. I played the woman who won a Nobel Prize in literature and that's what I was seen as, I wasn't seen as just a woman, but I was labeled. And that label was not seen valuable as an American. We may have not realized it but our values were defined by us being Americans.

I can definitely see this in my own life. I'm Indian and I have been viewed a certain way because of that. Many people assume that I'm very smart and do really well in school because that's how Indians are viewed. Just today in my Economics class we found out our test grades were posted online. The kid next to me made some comment that I probably got 100 on the test. He didn't know my last test grade and barely knows me at all but he just assumed that I did really well. This isn't the first time that it's happened, where people have told me that I'm really smart in school without ever really having a conversation with me or seeing my grades. However, the people I interact with face to face know me better. They know the subjects that I am good at, but they also know I'm really bad at math and have never gotten an A in science!

Sociology Week 2

This week in class we learned about the three founding perspectives of sociology - functional analysis, conflict theory, and symbolic interaction. Watching an episode of the TV show, Freaks and Geeks, helped to demonstrate these perspectives in a way that we could understand. The show is about high school set in the 80s. For functional analysis, we talked about the different groups and how the people in the group affected - negatively or positively- through being in the group. The two main groups were the 'Freaks' and then the 'Geeks'. The freaks were made up of people who really didn't care about academics and did whatever they wanted, but having each other made them do things they wouldn't do otherwise- like even attending school. The geeks on the other hand, had each other for support against people who were bullying them. For conflict theory we talked about who has power in the school, why they have power, and how it is used. Jeff the teacher was able to use his power to make Lindsay serve refreshments at the dance as a punishment. And lastly we talked about important symbols and how they affected how the characters acted to represent symbolic interaction. Lindsay's army jacket gave her a care free, tough attitude an enabled her to talk to people in a certain way, and have them take her seriously.

In my life, I can definitely relate to conflict theory. Certain people have power over me in my life- such as my parents. My parents set the rules for me that I have to follow. For example, every Friday after school I have to clean up the mess in my room that has accumulated over the week, otherwise I'm not allowed out. My mom is the one who sets this rule and I follow it because she has power over me. She is the one who supports me financially. I'm living in her house that she pays for, eating the food that she provides, wearing the clothes that she's bought, etc. If I lived in a house of my own I would be able to go out whenever I wanted, regardless of whether or not the place was a mess. My older sister has just moved out and is on her own now. As long as she is paying her own rent, my mom can't exercise the same amount of power over her as she did a few years ago. However, when my sister was in college my mom still had a lot of say because she was the one paying tuition. As long as my parents are the one providing me with money, they have a good amount of power over my actions.

Week One - Sociological Imagination & Mindfulness

This week in sociology we discussed sociological imagination and mindfulness. Sociological imagination is the idea that when you are and where you are affects who you are- your decisions, views, attitudes, thoughts, interests etc. For example, someone who was born today would act very differently opposed to someone born 50 years ago due to things such as advances in technology. The world around a person shapes that person. Sociological mindfulness is being able to appreciate people's qualities, ignoring/not contributing to stereotypes, and being aware of how everyone is interconnected to one another. For example, if a comedian tells a discriminatory joke, he/she is not being mindful of how that reinforces beliefs that aren't always true about certain types of people.

I am most able to connect sociological imagination to my experiences visiting India. I'm able to see how different my life would be if my parents hadn't moved and I had been born there. Pretty much all of my family lives there and the lives of my cousins my age are completely different. They place a way higher value on after school studying than over here. It's normal for virtually everyone to have tutoring multiple times a week, whether or not they're struggling. Over here, you only get a tutor if you need one. If anything, I would be embarrassed to get a tutor here because it would show that I don't understand something as much as I should. Another difference in school is that teachers never get to know their students on a personal level. I love getting to know my teachers- I've become very close with a few of them dating back to elementary school. If I was in India instead of over here, that would not be considered appropriate. Teachers still slam the children's fingers as a form of discipline over there. I remember telling my 13 year old cousin about my school life here and he couldn't believe it. Another area I see majorly different is the way children interact with parents, at least within my relatives. There is a very low tolerance for any kind of disrespect. I always knew that my parents seemed to have a lower tolerance for talking back than my friends' parents did and now I see that that could be because of their sociological imagination shaping the way that they raise me. My mom always tells me and my sisters that if my grandparents knew about some of the things my sisters and I did- like wear a bikini at the beach- they would have a heart attack! I would be a completely different person if I was born there.

Who Am I?

Hi! My name is Leah. I'm the middle child of one older and one younger sister. I live in the suburbs with my parents, younger sister, and three cats. I've always lived in the same house since I was born. I go to a large high school and social studies is my favorite subject. I'm involved in a couple extracurriculars - I have a weekly radio show with my best friend and we just goof off and play music and for the past two years I've also done KIVA club which has been a fun and gratifying experience. Next year I'm probably going to U of I which I'm nervous but also excited for!

I've always been really musically influenced. I love to sing and play guitar. I'm normally a pretty dependent person but music is always something I did on my own- I taught myself guitar and learned to sing on my own as well. I'm pretty shy but in the past year I've become more comfortable with performing in front of people. It started with small groups of friends at bonfires and slowly grew from there. People also have a huge influence in me. The people close to me, like family and friends, and also people I don't know personally. I've always loved reading interviews, blogs, etc. My favorite type of book to read is a memoir because it's so much more relatable than a regular biography. I really gain a lot through forming connections with people. I try to get to know people on a personal level because that's the best form of learning I know. I've learned so much from talking to people who are different than me. And one of my major goals in life is to continue forming strong personal connections with people, because that's what makes me happy. Not only do I like feeling close to people but I think it's really gratifying when they also feel connected to me. In college I plan to study journalism, and hopefully one day write for a magazine and be able to interview people myself!